Book Talk – Do You Let Yourself Read?

I had a voicemail from one of my writing friends yesterday. She said she was frustrated because she wasn’t giving herself time to read. Last year, she had structured it in: made a reading list, read the Classics over Summer, devoured books to feed the hunger — to be close to other writers.

This year, it was hard to give herself space.

I was relieved to get her call. I had the same thought process rushing through my head. I set aside one day a week (read — 5 hours) to work on my creative writing projects: to map out chapters, daydream, doodle, jot down ideas; to transcribe recordings from last June for my memoir; to scribble thoughts, future writing topics — to stare out the window and daydream.

I’m listening to Anne Lamott’s Word By Word in the car, to and from work (books on tape (CD) are the greatest!). She says every writer, every creative person, needs time to just sit and stare out the window.

You have to slow down and create space in your life for ideas to surface. Staring out the window can be productive for a writer.

Last year I was religious about giving myself time. I had the structure of a year long Writing Intensive with Natalie Goldberg to guide me. She assigned books to us, great literature to read. I read so many good books over the last two years.

What’s going on now?

Yesterday, during the 5 hours set aside for writing, I wouldn’t give myself the time. I tried staring out the window through the ash and oaks, listening to crows and the pretty pretty, pretty of cardinals, daydreaming about my projects. I felt guilty.

I thought of everything I had do around the house: give Kiev fresh water in her dish, make the unraveled bed, go through upcoming bills, slip in a load of laundry. I played tennis with Mr. StripeyPants on the bed. I fiddled with my hair. I took a long, hot shower. Still — no reading, no writing.

It took me a while to figure it out. What I really wanted to be doing was reading. Writers need to read other writers. People who have gone through the distracted pain, unspent joy, and daily soul-searching required to write a book.

Finally, late in the afternoon, I said, “Forget this!” (the language was not as kind), and settled in on the couch with Sinclair Lewis and Main Street. It felt so good to let myself read. I wandered the muddy streets of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, met Dr. Will Kennicott, and got lost in Carol Milford’s head.

Do you let yourself read?

WHAT: What are you reading? And I’m not just talking about magazines, the New York Times, or MSN online. I’m talking books. Tell me what books you’re reading.

WHERE: Where do you read? Propped up in bed, stretched out on the couch, in the tub, out on the porch swing?

WHEN: When do you read — late at night, early in the morning?

HOW: How do you read? Do you slow down and savor every word?

WHY: Why do you like reading. What inspires you to pick up a book?

Reading is good for the Spirit. I come from a family of readers. My mother read a lot when we were growing up. When we didn’t know the answer to something, she encouraged us to head down the hallway and grab one of the black Collier’s encyclopedias from the corner bookcase.

Did your parents read to you when you were a child? Who taught you how to form words? It is not only writers who should read — everyone should pick up a good book.

If you’re reading, let’s talk books. Tell me the what, why, when, where, and how. If you’re not reading, tell me why. Why is it the last thing on your list?

243 Responses

I read, but not nearly enough. Joined a book club last year to push myself to make more time for reading … this has resulted, mostly, in me stressing out over the fact that I haven’t made more time to read. Feh.

What: St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, The Year of Living Biblically, and Where I’m From

Where: anywhere I can, mostly on the bus and subway

When: whenever I can … but again, mostly on the bus and subway, so that’s morning rush hour and then late night

How: depends on what I’m reading … when I read
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith — both times — I went more slowly than not because the book is so gorgeous I wanted to take my time with it … when I read The Kite Runner, I went more quickly because the book was so painful I wanted to get through it as fast as I could.

Why: because it is an utter pleasure, because I’m a writer and I love to see what else is out there, because I love language and love to see how people use it to express so many different things … just because!

I, too, am from a reading family. We made weekly trips to our quite fabulous library. Before leaving on vacations, our last stop would be to check out a trip supply of books to load into the trunk. We could all be home (five of us) and the house would be silent, all of us deep in the middle of something. When the time came to sell our house, we started packing up our books and books and books … a family came to see the house and the husband looked at our crazy array of books then announced proudly: “We don’t have any books in our house. We get the Sports Illustrated and sometimes the Readers’ Digest, but that’s it.” They walked out and my mother closed the door behind them and looked at me. “Those people,” she said, “will never live in my house.”

That’s a great last line from your mother. And how she didn’t want someone who didn’t read books buying her home. What a strong statement about how much she valued reading, literature, learning.

You bring up reading on subways and buses. Something I had forgotten about when I was writing the post. Those are great places to read.

I’ve never joined a book club. But I tell you, I get overwhelmed with too much of a good thing. I finally stopped ordering magazines (except Poets & Writers) because I could just never get them read.

So it brings up the question – how do you choose what books you read? If you have a book club, it creates a structure (but an overwhelming one). But if we don’t have a structure – how do we know what books to read?

QM, I had wanted to comment on your previous post, Robert Frost (Miles to Go) (LINK), but think my comments will work here as well. I found your words “to stare out the window and daydream” to fit me perfectly.
You had commented on a 3rd grade teacher in the Frost post & it brought back memories of a teacher I had in the the 5th grade, Miss Engleka. She loved poetry & reading & she would read a poem or story with so much feeling that she inspired me to read. Her favorite poet was Robert Frost. Another teacher, Mr. Sprowls, my high school social studies teacher, often encouraged us to turn our chairs around facing the wall of windows, watch a storm that was passing through, the rainbow when all was calm, take notes & write an essay on our thoughts of what we had witnessed. He was a wonderful teacher & I will never forget those experiences & lessons learned from him.
My mother & father are both enthusiastic readers. My father more into books involving historical events, my mother mostly mysteries & spiritual books.
I read a variety of books. For the most part, whatever I am in the “mood” for. I read almost everywhere, but very seldom in my bed. I find that to be the most uncomfortable place to read. You are a great inspiration to all…D

It’s wonderful to see your meaty posts, QM, about writing and writers and reading and books.

I have not made time this year so far to read the books I got for Christmas. I started Ann Patchett’s Run, but then got sidetracked. I have Truth & Beauty, plus Lucy Grealy’s autobiography, and those are calling even more so than any fiction.

But, I am reading out loud most nights to the girls. We’re reading a book called Elsewhere about a 15-year-old girl who dies and goes to a place called Elsewhere (which is where all people and animals go when they die, I gather). It’s a fascinating book. It’s really got me thinking, plus it gives us a chance to talk about death and ghosts and afterlife and past lives. Really a great book for us to read together. Plus, I love to read out loud to my girls. Even though Dee is in middle school, she still loves to be read to.

And, I do read short stories, mostly each issue from The New Yorker. Just read one by Alice Munro that was kind of disturbing. I love short stories. I can read them before bed, and I’m done. Never any guilt associated with seeing the book next to my bed, unread for days, then weeks…and so on.

But, I do feel like I’m moving in the direction of carving out real time for reading and writing the books I want to read and write. I’m getting closer, and kind of dipping a toe in water until then.

Of all the authors I’ve heard over the past year, nearly all of them have talked about writing in the morning. They’d say it was so they can have guilt-free days. The further along this path I walk, the more I know the days full of guilt—not reading enough, not writing enough, not staring out the window enough, watching movies instead of writing, surfing the internet under the guise of looking for some tidbit for a story I’m writing…all the usual suspects. I didn’t know how loud and big the resistance would become.

My friends who are not writers read books for pleasure. They take the time to look at the Best Seller’s Rack at the bookstore, they read what Oprah is suggesting, they take their time and really sink into a book. I miss this. I often feel like it is a race against time to get everything read. It’s a hollow way to read.
I’m trying to follow their lead. I’m currently reading Will Weaver’s Red Earth, White Earth; he is speaking in Minneapolis in March. I want him to sign a book that has actually been read.

My dad constantly reading farming magazines and newspapers, my mom read romances. At 79, they are still both voracious readers–in their own ways.

Currently, I’m reading the controverial novel, Brick Lane by Monica Ali. But, I also read a lot of travel books.

I find it hard to schedule reading time into my life. I do the most reading on the train ride to work or waiting for the train. I also read a lot in the summer when I’m laying out on the deck or at the beach:)

Sort of an aside: As I was reading your post, it occurred to me that red Ravine for me is kind of that space, sometimes. Sometimes I quickly, quickly try to work through my blogroll, parsing out a space of attention for friends and writers between the everyday demans, but when I come here… I know I’m going to take time. Sometimes I’ve clicked red Ravine, seen what there is to read and think about, and gone back to my blogroll to finish some the rest of the list first. When I come here, I take time, I think, I feel frustrated if I feel I don’t have time to click some of the resource links. And I usually save red Ravine till I have space to enjoy it.

What: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series & Under the Tuscan Sun.

Where: Either curled in the big chair or in bed before sleep. If I have a lazy morning, in the tub. (tub books can’t be hardcovers, in case of ‘dropsy’.)

When: When I need a break from other stuff, and before bed, and on lazy mornings.

How: I devour books. I consume.

Why: Gosh. Sometimes for comfort and familiarity. Sometimes to be taken on a journey or an adventure. Sometimes to escape real life. Sometimes just to feel words moving inside my mind without having to conjure them myself.

It’s so wonderful to wake up and read all these rich comments on books and readng. What a treat.

diddy, thank for sharing about the teachers you had that moved you. Mr. Sprowls, your high school social studies teacher, having you watch the storms – it reminds me of a story that Natalie talks about with one of her teachers, Mr. Clemente. He had them listen to the rain.

I love when people write about great teachers they had because those are usually some of the first people (outside of our parents) to inspire us creatively in the “real” world. And what they teach us, for good or bad, has a very lasting impact.

ybonesy, it’s great that you read to your girls. I think it’s something that doesn’t get old. It’s also a way to broach controversial issues (as you mention). I’ve heard a lot of parents who let their kids see Juno were able to then talk about the subject of teen pregnancy. It opened some doors for the conversation to happen. Reading together does that, too.

I think when we’re pressed for time, short stories are a viable alternative for good reading. I sometimes forget about them in favor of books. But I am trying to read more essays, because that’s the genre I want to be writing more in.

I think our parents role model reading for us, too. Well, they role model most things, don’t they? We soak up everything when we are young, we are like sponges. If reading is one of them, all the better!

BTW, ybonesy, I’ve been writing more of these posts on writers because they inspire me to dig into my own work. I had not planned on writing this post at all! But when my friend called, and I was feeling the same way, I knew it might resonate with people.

Though time-consuming, posting these is really helping me to focus on my writing. I get a lot out of them. And I hope this post is a place that people can come back to and keep talking books.

Teri, a couple of things you said resonate with me. How your friends read books for pleasure (I really miss that!). And once we become writers, it can feel like we should be writing instead of reading, somehow. The guilt and pressure can be very strange. And for me it comes at unexpected times. So much of it is Monkey Mind.

Another think you mention, about surfing the Internet or watching movies – sometimes those things can enrich our writing. I find movies to really inspire me to write and want to take photographs. But there are times, too, when I’m using those things to escape. Inside my gut, I know which is which!

amuirin, thanks for your compliment to red Ravine. I appreciate you sharing that. I know we sometimes get some heavy posts and comments going on here, and they can sure take time to get through. I’m just glad there are people who want to engage with us. I get so much out of these conversations and find them inspiring.

I really like what you said about Why you read. That rings true for me, too:

Sometimes for comfort and familiarity. Sometimes to be taken on a journey or an adventure. Sometimes to escape real life. Sometimes just to feel words moving inside my mind without having to conjure them myself.

LB, let us know how it goes with Brick Lane when you finish it. I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks everyone for listing all these great books. I hope you’ll come back and share after you’ve read them!

I am on the airplane all the time: Last 14 days–Seattle, Sacramento, New Orleans, DC. I come loaded with books and don’t do work on the plane. Read “Beautiful Children” by Charles Bock. First novel-took him 11 years to finish and he got a story in New York Times Magazine before it was released, the cover of NYT Book Review, listed in Editors Recommend and this week he’s on the Best Sellers list. I am insanely jealous. He is 38 and I met him 2weeks ago when he came to Las Vegas. My husband says, “Franny, you can’t get published until you finish the book.” Bock’s book is about Las Vegas, runaway and homeless kids and has a lot of obscenity but is beautifully written.
On the trip back from DC I finished “Someone Knows my Name” a historical novel about a slave who is relocated to Nova Scotia at the time of the American Revolution. Because I finished it in a five hour read on the plane, I was completely absorbed and so disturbed (very graphic) that I couldn’t sleep.
I grew up with floor to ceiling shelves of books-fiction and a huge collection of plays and read voraciously always.
My children (29 and 36) do not read even though reading before bed was a part of our life. I lost them somewhere.

So it brings up the question – how do you choose what books you read? If you have a book club, it creates a structure (but an overwhelming one). But if we don’t have a structure – how do we know what books to read?

Choosing for the bookclub is a kind of funny process. We have all these running lists of books people have suggested, but we often wind up choosing something that’s not on any of the lists. We alternate between fiction and non-fiction, so our lists are pretty free-wheeling.

When I choose for myself, I rely on all sorts of input: friends, book reviews, interviews on the radio … I also like to spend time in the book store once a month seeing what’s out there that I haven’t heard of that might interest me. I try to make at least one hefty purchase from a small book shop every month (as much as I love amazon and will go to Barnes & Noble in a pinch, I want the little shops to stay alive).

I have always loved being read to. I listen to “Selected Shorts” whenever I can because it’s still such a pleasure to have someone read me a story. A friend and I took a road trip a few years ago and my job — since she was doing all the driving — was to read to her as we drove. One of the books we read was Ana Castillo’s Loverboys. It was such a different experience to be driving for hours through the night reading and reading and reading like that. That friend is the most voracious reader I know. She reads faster and more than anyone I’ve ever met. I aspire to such feats!

I loved reading about all your different ways of reading. There are so many different ways reading enters my life: devouring a book for spiritual nourishment like a hungry person; savoring the latest book by a favorite author; soaking in a book, especially when the language captivates me; taking a well-crafted book apart to understand how it is made (usually on a rereading); reading and rereading powerful passages aloud — and sometimes even copying one by hand so I can feel how it moves through my body; escaping into a good tale the way I did as a child on the beach during the summer.

Reading takes a different concentration for me than writing. I need to set aside different time and space for reading than I do for writing. And I have to be ruthless about my choices. Reading a book is a huge commitment for me. I have to make the best use of my time on this earth. Life is too precious to waste on books that do not nourish me.

One of my favorite ways of reading is with other passionate readers, each of absorbed in our own encounter. Some of my most intimate memories are of time spent with my family at the beach, reading in beach chairs at the edge of the surf to escape the heat, each person lost in their own thick paperback, waves flowing in and out over our feet and under our seats, moving our chairs back a few feet whenever the tide asserts its claim on our territory.

My interests are all over the place and I have both books I have purchased and books from the library surrounding me. I recently started Natalie’s new book, Old Friend From Far Away; from the library I checked out 740 Park, The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building. From my bulging shelves I just added Edge of Taos Desert to the next in line pile; You on a Diet (scared to really get into that one); Reasons to Believe by John Marks; One Drop by Bliss Broyard. There are too many books to read them all so I try to acquire as many as I can afford so that I can take them with me everywhere and read under any conditions.

I discovered books on tape/CD about ten years ago. In the past two years, I have always had a book going in the car. I gave up listening to the radio or music so that I could listen to stories. They are great on my frequent drives to Florida. In fact one time I was so involved in a story (Eat, Pray, Love) that when I attempted to stop at a rest stop, I couldn’t break away from the story enough to decipher the signs and ended up back on the highway for another 30 miles, still needing to go to the bathroom.

I have a lot of books that are unread because I keep finding more books to read. I keep the unread books close by in case inspiration strikes. There is a place here in Baltimore where you can get free books and also donate your finished books. From there I am accumulating a set of Great Books, all of which I keep in the trunk of my car so that I will never be without a book to read, say should I get stuck in a blizzard or something and have no books on tape/CD at the ready. I read in bed, while watching TV, in waiting rooms, on the exercise equipment at the gym, during my lunch hour, while waiting for an event to start, in line at the post office. At the bookstore. I don’t read in the bathtub anymore, not since I dropped a library book in the water and the library made me pay for it. I listen to books on tape/CD while cleaning out closets, taking a shower, brushing my teeth (currently What I Believe).

I first learned to read at four years old, used to read my brothers text books (he was two grades ahead of me) and didn’t get a library card until I was in fifth grade. I have been hooked ever since. The day my father took me to the library is still vivid in my mind. An entire building full of books to read for free??? Anytime??? Really?

I don’t recall being read to as a child. It might have happened and I just don’t remember. However, from the time I discovered the library, I regularly went. The librarian, a friend of my mother’s, always directed me away from the section on sex and towards the classics when I became a teenager. I have lived in several states and the first things I would do at the new location was register to vote and get a library card. No one in my family read books. My mother read The Daily Record, my father read the Bible and both of them read the newspaper faithfully. My older brother avoided reading his books, my younger brother started to read regularly in his twenties; his wife lambasted me for buying her a book as a Christmas present one year as she informed me that a book was an insult because she didn’t read. Enough said on that.

Why I read is a harder question to answer. It is like a deep need that must be fulfilled. Sometimes it is for information ( I read the instruction manuals that come with stuff) or to satisfy my curiosity and sometimes it is pure escapism. Lately it is to honor my increasing appreciation of the craft itself. I took a semester long class last year on the structure of fiction as a way not to improve my writing so much as to better understand the writing of others. Big payoff on that one.

Franny, I love this line – “Franny, you can’t get published until you finish the book.” 8) I can sure relate to that. The Bock book, it took him 11 years to finish it, wow. I’ve been thinking a lot about how much patience it takes to be a good writer. You have to be willing to wait – and follow the process. And never give up.

I’m really interested in“Someone Knows my Name” the historical novel about a slave who is relocated to Nova Scotia at the time of the American Revolution. I’m drawn to want to read that. I’m happy to hear from you here in the comments. I really miss you and hearing you read your writing.

girlgriot, thanks for coming back and commenting on the question. And thanks for reminding me of Selected Shorts. I used to listen to that all the time on NPR and now, I never seem to hear it. I’m wondering if it still airs there, or another station.

It is so great to be read to. I like your cross country story and reading out loud to each other along the way. I don’t read very quickly at all – very slowly in fact. And I easily get distracted. So when I do read alone, I like complete quiet and to really get lost in the book. But once I’ve started, a tornado could fly by – I wouldn’t hear it.

Elizabeth, I like your idea of reading and rereading passages that inspire. And especially, of copying a few paragraphs of brilliant writing by hand –

reading and rereading powerful passages aloud — and sometimes even copying one by hand so I can feel how it moves through my body.

The idea of a passage moving through the body, that really is writing down the bones, isn’t it?

You brought up another good point – setting aside different space for reading than for writing. I have to do that, too. It’s a totally different mindset. Thanks for reminding me that I can be deliberate about that structure.

I really like your beach story. I went to the shore in Maryland a few summers with my sister’s family and my mom. It was heaven and I loved the relaxing family time. One of my fondest memories is watching Mom get absorbed in the lastest Harry Potter book on the beach. It was perfect ocean reading. And she just couldn’t put it down!

I have a hard time reading on the beach for some reason. There is often a lot of glare. And I tend to just want to sit and stare off into space, listen to the ocean, feel the breeze, just be. I guess there is room for both!

I’m really intuitive about the way I choose books to read. But once I start something, I usually make the effort to finish it. I do like all kinds of books though. From mysteries to astrology to literature.

Jackie, love following the flow of your comment. From Baltimore to Florida. Happy to meet another book on CD/tape fan. I can’t say enough about books on tape for people on the go. I used to have a longer commute and got through a lot of books. I spend much less time in the car now, but still try to have a book going.

I think I mentioned before, that a few years ago, Liz and I both checked out The Master Butcher’s Singing Club, a novel by Louise Erdrich. And we listened to it at the same time in our separate cars. When we’d come together for dinner (this was before we lived together), we’d compare notes about the book. It’s historical, set in Minnesota and North Dakota, so it was really fun to read. I tend to like books about place.

Anyway, your idea about keeping a stash of books in your trunk and everywhere you go is delightful. I always try to carry a book with me everywhere, too. I can almost always squeeze some reading in while I am waiting.

I’d like to hear what you think of Edge of Taos Desert when you get to it. Many who read here have a strong connection to Mabel Dodge.

And I like what you said about taking classes:

I took a semester long class last year on the structure of fiction as a way not to improve my writing so much as to better understand the writing of others. Big payoff on that one.

I think Elizabeth mentions it, too, in her comment – that taking apart the structure of the books we love, understanding the writing of others, helps us to be better writers.

I presented on 3 books over the last few years. Read them, took notes, learned about the authors, put the books in context of time and place, and really studied the way the authors structured their books. I can’t tell you how much I learned from that. It completely absorbed me and took a lot of time. But it was worth it!

QM, I wanted to come back & comment here again. The comments I have read in this post are very interesting to me as a “reader”. I often research the author’s of books that I read. I guess I have that need to know who they are & I especially liked Franny’s comment about not being able to publish a book until she finishes it. As a reader I always feel a sadness & loss when I read the the last line of any book. I’m not sure why that is, but I shared this feeling not long ago with a dear friend that I met & email thanks to red Ravine. She shared the same feeling. I suppose maybe that is why it takes some writer’s so long to finish writing their works. I think if I were to write it would nearly be impossible for me to finish. I don’t think I would be willing to let go. D

QM, great post. I’ve felt a similar urge to read more lately. Seems like I’m always ordering books, yet they grow in unread piles around my bed.

I have been reading a lot of poetry lately. I like collections by a single author, slim volumes of maybe fifty poems. I just finished Modern Life by Matthea Harvey, and A Country Between Us by Carolyn Forche.

I’m reading a novel in Spanish by Mayra Montero, called Dancing to Almendra.

But it’s not nearly enough. I feel impatient. I used to sit in a chair and read all day, for hours on the weekend. Now I write much more than I read, and read only for an hour before I go to sleep. I read in bed.

I hate it when I waste time. Staring out the window is productive for me, as are the haiku walks.

What isn’t productive is surfing the web. I think I need to limit my time blogging, reading only my faves (like red Ravine!).

You don’t know how many times (just today, in fact) that I’ve wished I had a book to read while waiting for some thing or another. We do so much waiting in our lives, and like today, we were at a store purchasing a tractor (!!!), there was nothing to look at, nothing to do except leaf through tractor brochures. Well, so I practiced just sitting. (I’m sure the tractor man will appear in one of my writing practices some day…oh, and the Rush Limbaugh talk radio in the background that suddenly made me regret buying the tractor from him.)

BTW, back to your comment #8, I took Dee to see Juno weekend before last. Em had a sleepover, and so we had a little night out, just me and Dee. At first I was immediately worried that the movie was way too mature for her, but it turned out to be a great movie. We talked about Juno and her pregnancy and choices. You know, if you wait to take a girl to this kind of movie when she’s old enough to be sexually active, it’s probably too late.

But, back to reading…I remember my mother reading every night in bed. She loved lots of types of media — newspaper, magazine, books. Of the books, she read lots of romance. She checked out oodles of books at the library, blasted through them, returned them, then checked out another round. She also read National Enquirer and other rags. And Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal. I would lay next to her and read “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”

Dad read history-related books, autobiographies, and some novels. He had Gore Vidal and other authors who I’m now forgetting. He must have read at night, before turning in, but I don’t remember seeing him read the way I remember Mom, surrounded by reading materials on her bed.

Great comments on this post, btw. I know what you mean, diddy, about the sadness that often comes with the last line in a book.

QM ~ Very interesting post!. Thank you for all the time you put into it.

I too am from a family of readers. I love books, and I love to read. My problem is I always have too many books going at once. I need to be more disciplined about finishing one before buying or checking out another one.

I always carry these things with me no matter where I go they are in my car…bottled water, healthy snacks, my camera, sketch pad / pencil, and at least two or three books. That is my survival kit in case I am waiting or stranded somewhere.

reading. one of the things that i retain pride in as a parent is curling up with my daughter and reading. We covered a wrinkle in time, the harry potters, we read classics. i read anne of green gables while she cleaned her room. (several chapters a week to match the several bags of garbage that we emptied each week). we read the little house on the prairie books. we read books that i read as a young person. as she got to highschool, i read her summer reading with her. Pearl S Buck the good earth, Dr. Zhivago, charles dickens, brave new world, catcher in the rye, and Frankenstein. It was good to re-read those i had read before.

i love to read. it is an escape from day to day things. it allows me to be someone else. i usually have several books going at once. and on my floor, on my bed, and what is there now is: a book about Buffy the vampire slayer as archetypes, a book by the dalai lama, the senator and the priest by andrew greeley, and since i am in the midst of my MBA, i am reading accounting, the world is flat, international business articles (not really true reading but i guess i have to count it as it consumes my time).

i like to read in bed. they say that it doesn’t help to go to sleep. i defy anyone to say that is true in my case. i can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. (ask R3 about the couch) i like to read when i get to bed. sometimes a chapter is all i can get through before i begin nodding off to sleep. it is a way that i wind down from very busy days. i also have several Games magazines and pencils on the bed. one never knows when one wants to get busy in bed.

favorite books: The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King, well worn from all the re-reading. (and the rest of that series), Sherlock Holmes – i have a growing collection, Carol Nelson-Douglas writes about Louie mysteries (he is a cat along the sam spade line of detective), and Janet Evanovich’s series of Stephanie Plum the bailbondsman. i like stories that make me laugh aloud as i read them. i like happy books. i rarely read things that make me cry.

i used to dream of writing a novel. but i like reading them too much. writing a book would take away the reading time. not sure i want to trade that one off.

My literature journal tells me that up until my early thirties, I read about 150 books per year. In the last three years, though, I’ve almost completely stopped. My concentration is gone; I simply can’t focus. I can still read blogs, because they’re interactive, and the potential for me to give input keeps my mind on track. But the moment I sit down to really read, all I can think about is my financial problems,or my therapy sessions, or what the hell I’m going to do with myself when my mother dies (long hence, God willing) or what I’m going to do when my cats get sick and die (also long hence, but one of them is twelve, and time is running out,and on and on and on and on).

I just finished Barack’s Audacity of Hope. I felt really glad (considering his role in America right now) to know more intimately his views, his background, his life with Michelle. He mentioned John McCain several times in his book. Little did he know.

Hooray! The 3 books I ordered arrived today! Perfect timing too, as I have a cold or the flu (well, something nasty). Now I have to decide what to read first! It wouldn’t be an issue if I had ordered just one! D

ybonesy, good point about Juno. Waiting until a girl is sexually active might be a little too late.

reccos62, I had no idea you read that much! And you are passing along your legacy to your daughter. I really like Laurie King, BTW. I have to hope one can make the room to both read and write! At least, that’s what I’m shooting for. Maybe you’ll want to write your books someday.

DR, interesting that you’ve stopped reading after the 150 books a year! Someone else commented on how creating the space to read requires a certain mindset, a different one than all the other active things we do in the course of a day. I’ve been thinking more and more about that. We have to quiet the mind to read.

Sinclair, thanks for coming back and sharing the book you just finished. I hope more will do that on this post as they continue to read. That’s my plan (if I make it through the books I’m currently reading!)

gypsy-heart, sounds like you carry a book survival kit as well. I think Jackie mentioned that and it seems to be a common reading thread! A good idea, too.

diddy, I read in another comment that you’ve decided to write your own memoir! I’m so happy that you’ve been inspired in that way. Let us know how it goes this summer when you start Natalie’s book and move through the chapters.

Hey, I wanted to say one other thing about that – her books tend to be interactive. But I read a few of them before I ever started to do the Writing Practices in them. So don’t feel like you have to hold off on her books if you’re not ready to write. In the beginning, I skipped the exercises and just soaked in what she had to say about writing. It can also be applied to simply living!

Well, QM, I thought long & hard about ordering one of Natalie’s earlier books, but since I already knew that I wanted to write my memoir’s for so long now, I decided to take the plunge. I need writing practice to help guide me. A lifetime of memories can become so scattered & since I have already made my decision to write my life story into written word, I have had to face the fact that some of it will be ugly. Strange, but I take many memories to bed with me & for several weeks now, a lot of my past & present appear to me in dream. I have a great recollection of them upon waking up.
Anyhow, if not for people like you & YB (my fierce warrior angels, who inspire & who’s posting’s sustain me) I would probably have allowed my decision to be nothing more than a pipe dream.”Some may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”…Camp will be the perfect retreat to write & read. We are seriously considering buying a pontoon boat (used, of course) & I can see it all now. Strolling the river with my best friend J & it might be easier then. D

diddy, I’m so happy you are going to start writing your book. You sound so ready to begin Writing Practice. And the fact that your dreams are communicating with you, tells you that everything is right there at the surface.

I think it was you that mentioned in another comment, how hard it is to finish a book. I think it’s equally hard to start. And that’s part of what I love about Writing Practice. I can do it, get something down on the page, even on days when I don’t want to, can’t, (or won’t let myself), do anything else. I can always come back to that structure.

Your RiverWriting sounds perfect for you. And kind of Mark Twainish, too. 8) I can see you sitting out on the dock, writing away. Maybe right now you are composting, pulling everything to the front of your memories. If you aren’t writing, at least keep a pocket notebook beside the bed (or in the living room next to your table), and jot ideas down.

And thanks so much for the compliment to ybonesy and me. If we have inspired even one person to write, I could not be happier. It’s part of the reason we do this blog (the other part being that it keeps us close to our art and writing, helps us to finetune, and also continues to keep us close to a creative community).

Being called a fierce warrior angel is one of the greatest compliments of all! I can’t think of anything better. And today, when I need to get going on my 5 dedicated hours to my book, it really reminds me that somewhere, I’ve got that fierceness inside me – to not give up, and get down to the business of creating.

The only advice I’d share is to give it time. Once you make up your mind to write your memoirs, it’s like busting through a door. I know the first time I realized I wanted to write about my life, I then wanted to race to the finish line. But I’ve learned it’s not the race I originally thought it was.

Back from a family-visiting trip to Florida, reading the posts and comments: ybonesy, I broke up laughing at “coffee, four creams” — now that’s my kind of chutzpah… I tucked a book in my bag for the plane, almost a 4 hr. flight, and had no clue it was going to be so gripping I would not want to put it down until that last page was turned. The best book I have read in ages – The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney – very highly recommended. If you like snow, or reading about snow while you are warm, you’ll love it – great plot, characters and beautiful chilling descriptions of the frozen wilderness within and without.

Thanks for the book recommendation, Linda. It seems appropriate for this blog, as many of our posts and comments have been dedicated to snow and winter and animals.

I wonder if you flew the direct flight Southwest has from ABQ to Florida — is it Orlando? Not many flights out of ABQ that are 4 hours long, being as how most of our flights are hops to PHX or Dallas or Denver to transfer to a longer flight.

I meant to ask you how the Florida weather was. I was in Phx last week, and it sure was lovely to be out of the cold and into the 80-degree days. I felt so overdressed in my sweaters and leather jacket.

Linda, thanks for commenting. I’ve heard that title, The Tenderness of Wolves, bouncing around a couple of places now – maybe I should read it! Plus, I’m in love with Winter, snow, ice, the whole shebang! It seems like there are many books with wolves in the title. It brings me back to our discussion on wolves in the Totem and Wolf Moon posts.

I’m loving hearing about what everyone is reading. It is so diverse. I made more progress on Main Street over the weekend. I’ve decided I really like novels that are set in places I have lived or do live. It’s like a walk back in time.

Hi – yeah I thought you’d like a book about snow QM, and a colder, more deprived place than you’ve probably ever lived, lol.
The flight was nonstop Abq-Tampa – it’s great once you get there. Weather was changeable – balmy, cloudy, windy, hail, rain, tornado warnings, chilly, sunny – take your pick. We exercised our jaws and did some heavy sitting. Came home and had a little snow. Melted before 9 am, the best kind.

Yeah, I wonder if I could stand the starkest of snow and cold places. I often see these documentaries of men and women who go to the North and South Poles on foot, by dogsled. I don’t know how I’d do in that harsh of an environment. But I’d like to visit.

Florida – ah. I haven’t been there in years. A friend just got back from Sanibel last week. I haven’t checked in with her yet. Or asked her what books she read!

“We exercised our jaws and did some heavy sitting” – 8) this is funny. Sounds heavenly. I can’t remember the last time I took a vacation and just relaxed (not combining it with writing, research, workshops, or work). I’m overdue.

At least when I finally do go, I’ll have a great list of books to read!

I sat over a year under Natalie Goldberg’s wise instruction. She talked constantly about learning from good writers. “Watch the mind of the writer,” she’d said again and again. I felt like a chronic novice at this–convinced I was always missing the boat.

I just finished Red Earth, White Earth (Comment #5), and can say for the first time (with absolute confidence), that I was following the mind of the writer, Will Weaver. I am thrilled, if I do say so myself. Will kept constant pressure on the protagonist, Guy. I somehow knew how to watch Will’s writing, to hear the story but also see his craft. The pressure on Guy didn’t let up until the last page, and it kept me hooked. And it wasn’t car-chase pressure. It was a subtle, emotional driving force underlying the entire book.

I’m looking forward to going and hearing Will Weaver, too. I hope I get the book read before he comes. He’s going to be with a filmmaker, too – I can’t remember his name. But it’s a collaboration, right?

I think it’s great that you were following his mind as you read Red Earth, White Earth. I’ve started doing the same thing with some of the books I read. Now that I’ve learned about book structure, I naturally pay attention to it when I’m reading. It doesn’t seem to detract from the enjoyment of reading the book either.

I’ve noticed I’ve been doing the same thing with Sinclair Lewis and Main Street. (I haven’t been making enough time to read and am only about 1/2 way done.) What I’ve noticed is that, in this book, he is fantastic at the details and about laying out place, and developing his characters (in this case in the Midwest). But (at least to me) he is weak in the dialogue department.

Strong dialogue is something not every writer is good at. I’ve also noticed the way he lays out his chapters, then, the whole book. All of this helps me with ideas in my own writing.

ybonesy, I remember having the discussion on narrative drive (what gets us to turn the page). But I can’t recall the details at the moment. It was around the essays we were writing for the Intensive. I’m the first to admit, I don’t know much about the formal language and breakdown of literature. I’m not even that well read. But I can recognize patterns in what is good when I see it.

Anne Lamott talks about being asked by a student at one of her workshops, when she was going to teach about plot points. Anne replied, “I don’t even know what a plot point is.” She went on to say, there are lots of books out there about the formal techniques of writing. But she just sits down and writes (by her own admission, very bad 1st drafts!). And she teaches from her own experience of writing. Not from a formal education around it.

I can relate to that. I’m not a literature major. Just a simple writer. But I’ve learned how to look at book structure (and the minds of other writers) from Natalie. And it’s been invaluable to me. The more books I read by a single writer, the better I get at it, too. It’s good to read a writer’s whole body of work. You can really get an understanding of her/his mind that way.

The other day I was trying to jump from introducing characters to getting them to talk to each other. The second I tried to do it, I couldn’t remember a thing about dialogue. I tried to think of books I had recently read. Do they start talking on the first page or on page 20? How does it happen? What are the first words?

I was glad I could reach for good literature on my shelf to look at for guidance. And like the experience of watching Will Weaver keep the pressure on in Red Earth, White Earth, I can learn about dialogue by watching what the masters do. So…this is why Natalie keeps telling us to read. Hmmm….I’m finally catching on.

Yes, Will is going to be joined by Ali Selim (film director) to talk about how Will’s short story “Gravestones Made of Wheat” became the sensational movie “Sweetland.”

I started Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe today. Isn’t this one of your favorites, QM? Again, so interesting to see how Fannie Flagg structures the book in short, newsy articles. It seems like a very manageable, gentle way to write.

QM & Teri, the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is one of my all time favorites! I should take it off the shelf & read it again!
I am currently reading The Problem with Murmur Lee, by Connie May Fowler. Very interesting book & I haven’t had much time to read it the last few days, but pick it up daily & read a chapter or two. I can’t wait to finish it as I am over half way through, but for right now I have too many other things on my plate. It is very much structured in the same way that Teri explains, in short newsy articles. D

Teri, I LOVE Fried Green Tomatoes. And the movie that was made from the book certainly does the book justice: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson. I’ve seen the movie countless times. It’s probably one of the few I own. It sure would be fun to pull it off the shelf again.

What I love about people writing about the books they are reading is that it reminds me to either go back in memory to when I read it, or to head forward and pull the book off the shelf. No matter how old a book is, or when it was published, when we read it for the first time, it becomes new again. I just love that.

diddy, sounds like a great book. I didn’t know much about Connie May Fowler before you mentioned her in one of your comments. I found a bio (LINK) with an interesting tidbit:

in 2003 Ms. Fowler performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charities. She is currently writing her seventh book, a novel with the working title How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly.

She sounds pretty progressive. I did read a little about the characters in the book you are reading, Murmur Lee. They sound kind of wild!

I have the DVD version (Fried Green Tomatoes) that has a rather lengthy piece about how the movie was made and the impact on the town and crew.

In it they interview the four main actresses, and something Jessica Tandy said has always stuck with me. She said she loved being a part of a movie that showed human beings at their best, their most generous, their kindest. It did do that, but it wasn’t fluffy or overly sweet. It was real and earthy and full of sadness, too.

Teri, I don’t remember ever seeing that. I’d like to see the extra sometime. It’s true about that movie. Full of real life struggle and sadness. But also the kindness and generosity of human beings – to show up for each other in the ways that matter. Makes me want to see the movie again.

Was it the town in Georgia where they filmed that was changed? Or the town in Alabama, near where Flagg was born? When I looked it up, I saw that The “Whistle Stop Café” is loosely based on a real-life restaurant, the Irondale Café in Irondale, Alabama. But the set used as the Whistle Stop Café was in Juliette, Georgia.

It’s the town of Juliette that has changed. It was nearly abandoned, and now it is a tourist attraction. In fact, I was thinking maybe you could take a day trip down there when you go back to Georgia the next time—try some authentic fried green tomatoes.

I’ll loan you the DVD with the extra features. It may have been the anniversary edition or something.

Teri, great idea. Looks like Juliette, Georgia is located in Monroe County, more in the center of the state, almost directly west of where I will be (I’ll be in east central, on the Savannah River at the border of S.C. and Georgia). I’ll have to see how far it is in miles. This year’s trip, I hope to go to Savannah to visit some of my ancestral history there. I’ve never been there before. So much to do, so little time! Sure would be fun to see where the movie was filmed though.

What you said about revitalizing the town when the movie was filmed there – that’s one example of how the Arts can impact a community (LINK). I was just reading about all the ways the Arts keep our Minnesota communities alive. Juliette is a living example of how the Arts can affect local economies in positive ways.

diddy, I’ll keep the book in mind. But I might just have to rely on you telling me about it! I’m so far behind in the reading. I’m glad I have people to talk to who can fill me in on other great writers that I may never have the time to read.

QM, try Connie May Fowler’s book Before Women Had Wings. I really think you would like it. I loaned the book to K & she liked it also. Like me, she found it difficult to put it down.I thought I had read that it was to be put into a movie version.
The Problem with Murmur Lee is truly wild, however, if anyone is offended by curse words, it would not be for them. It is indeed full of many colorful characters! D

Isn’t it hard to admit that we’ll never be able to read every author we want to? When I read your last comment to diddy, I felt both relief and angst about that fact. It’s too bad that we have to spend time doing things like shopping for groceries and going to work.

I’m enjoying my practice of starting to read more locals authors these days. In the past two years I’ve been reading about the Rio Grande, the desert, the Bronx, the Brooklyn Bridge. I don’t know why it’s funny if something happens in Queens, or why the exact same thing would never happen in Manhattan. But when I read about Fargo, I know Fargo. When they talk about the woods on the Iron Range, I’ve been there. If someone contemplates their life while staring at the bluffs around the Mississippi River, I am right there with them. I’m going to say, it’s quite nice for now.

Yes, it’s so hard to admit – I’m never going to get everything read I want to read! I just keep going as I am able. I agree about the local (and also regional) authors. I was just reading about the impact of being a regional author in Poets & Writers. We are connected to other local and regional authors by virtue of our work. And we all have a similar frame of physical, geographical, and cultural reference. It’s cool to think about that connection.

I finished Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face. Then I immediately read Ann Patchett’s Truth & Beauty. Both were superb. I want to re-read them both. I promise, I *will* do a post on them.

The girls and I finished Elsewhere. It was good. Fun for us to do together.

I haven’t gone back to Run. I am reading out of Natalie Goldberg’s new book, Old Friend from Far Away. I pick out a chapter — they’re short — when I want inspiration for writing.

I’m ready for something new, preferably memoir. I don’t think I have any unread ones on my shelves. Jim did take out a box of his books, and I saw a couple there — one Hemmingway and one Kerouac — that I’d like to read. But I’d prefer memoir. Any suggestions anyone?

ybonesy, Can’t wait for your post on Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face. And Ann Patchett’s Truth & Beauty. I read the latter and loved it (up and down relationship between two writers). Have not read Lucy Grealy’s yet. I should pick that up.

Hey, one new memoir I’ve been drawn to is “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food” by Jennifer 8. Lee. Has anyone read it yet?

I heard her interviewed on NPR and was immediately pulled in by her angle. (Of interest – there are basically two people in the country who write most of the fortunes in fortune cookies. People also play the lotto based on fortune cookie numbers.) But her exploration of class and culture from the fortune cookie angle drew me in. The book is billed as part memoir, part travelogue, part cultural history.

I, too, anticipate your post, ybonesy. I’ve read both books, but both were read in haste–I was in one of those white-knuckle races to read everything before I die. I’d like to read them both again. Slowly. I’ll wait for your inspiring post, however, before I begin.

I’ve started Maya Angelou’s six-part autobiography this week. Actually, I’m not promising to read all six books, but the first one (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings) has me under its spell. She was in Minneapolis a week ago, but I just couldn’t drag myself to one more event. I’m kicking myself now. Hard.

Teri, I wish I had gone to see Maya Angelou, too, when she was here last week. But when you live in an urban area, there’s always so much going on. We have to make hard choices.

BTW, I heard her on MPR that week. She was talking about how she is turning 80 this year, and about all the life she has seen. Think about it – she was born in 1928. SO much has happened since 1928. She has lived through a lot.

I also love the tone of her voice. And how slowly she speaks and reads her work. When I listen to her, the depth of her work really has a chance to sink in through her steadiness and pauses (in just the right places).

Finally, watching Fried Green Tomatoes again (Comments 40 – 47). Really makes me want to read Fannie Flagg’s book again. And visit the Whistle Stop set in Juliette, Georgia. The music is great, too. Bonus. The movie has so many layers going on. Jessica’s a good storyteller. And Idgie Threadgoode, the bee charmer from Alabama.

Teri, I watched the extra feature on Fried Green Tomatoes last night where they talked about the town of Juliette, Georgia being completely revitalized by the film being shot there (Comments 40 – 47). The director, Jon Avnet, seems like a truly wonderful man, too. He wrote the movie for Jessica Tandy.

I was intrigued by the writing process he went through. He hired the writers, Carol Sobieski, then Fannie Flagg herself. But as fate would have it, they both stepped off the project and he ended up spending 5 years writing it himself. Then Flagg stepped back in at the end. Fascinating process with the writers.

Fannie Flagg had no idea anyone would ever want to make the book into a movie. And Jon Avnet had so much passion for the project, he would not be tossed away.

I think what makes that movie (and the book) so good is the universal appeal to humanity. The book covers everything: poverty, class, addiction, racism, intimate relationships between women, kind and caring men, age differences, growing older.

And I think you’re right – it taps into basic human kindness. I can’t remember which actress said it now, but she said that the average lower to middle class person is real America. Basic human kindnesses toward other human beings. They aren’t trying to make their mark or have their 15 minutes of fame – they are just living everyday with as much integrity and honesty as they can.

Did you notice that Fannie Flagg makes a cameo appearance in the movie? She is one of the motivational speakers that Evelyn goes to in an effort to save her marriage. What a kick for Fannie to get to appear in the movie–sort of like when the real Erin Brockovich played the waitress in the movie about her life.

So the obvious question is…will you be going to Juliette in June? It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? JuoinMonkey joes to Juliette in June. Just think of the great post you could do, the pictures waiting to be taken, the locals to talk to…

I’ve been just kinda listening in to this conversation on ‘my comments’. I love that movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, never read the book.

But the bee charmer thing really gets me. There’s something indefinable, but definitely tenacious between literature and bees. There’s almost a mysticism to it, it’s like people who keep bees, and people who write about people who keep bees, and people who just love literature and the unseen realms of other worlds, they’re all connected. Bee-keepers show up in a lot of my favorite books, from Sue Monk Kidd to Barbara Kingsolver, and you can always trust the bee-keeper in a story. They’re like a preserver of magic, a keeper of secrets, always.

Teri, well that remains to be seen. Will JuoinMonkey go to Juliette in June? I would LOVE to go. But I have to see how it fits into my schedule. I want to make it to Savannah for sure this time to revisit some ancestral things there with Mom. I’m going to keep it on my radar though. Keep my ears perked to see where the Universe is leading me. ;-)

amuirin, the bee charmers – I totally agree with you. Magical. Anything to do with having a calmness, a presence with bees, is something to be revered and respected.

I had forgotten about the connection to Sue Monk Kidd and Kingsolver. The unseen realms of other worlds. Yes!

It reminds me, too, when I watched The Last Mimzy (connected to comments in the Coloring Mandalas post (LINK), part of the mystery was that the boy character was able to tap into the universal knowledge of listening to the insects. He could hear the language of bees and bugs.

And he heard the noise the spiders made when they built their webs. It was part of his gift. Part of what he contributed to the main female character’s ability to listen and speak to future otherworlds, to create a bridge.

What do I take away from all this? Everything has always been, and will always remain, indisputably connected. Some of those connections can be found through the lost arts of the alchemies. The alchemists (I consider bee charmers alchemists).

Though with science, humans try to explain away all the magic. It’s still there. It’s my belief that us strange ones, the writers and artists, keep the magic alive in literature and the arts. We are still willing to go there.

Oh, Teri, I forgot to mention, it was Liz who pointed out Fannie Flagg when she popped up in the movie last night. I had forgotten she was in it!

Flagg talked about how strange it was to actually step on to the set that up until then, only existed in her mind. Then, through the movie, she stepped right into the pages of her book and helped Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) come into her own. TOWANDA!

amuirin, your comment really made me stop and think. You’re right — there is something magical about bees in literature. My father turned me on to The Secret Life of Bees, and now I’m trying to remember where he learned about it from (I think it was my sister). Dad’s very much a mystery and New York Times Top 10 Bestseller book guy, so it was kind of cool and unusual that we all passed around and loved this particular book.

But the other thing I want to say is, I just left a comment on the WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! post (LINK) regarding the fact that when Jim and I bought this house, we inherited three honey bee hives and a beekeeper’s suit. We also inherited some box turtles that were still in hiberation and a big, old bullsnake, but the honey bees were different. I had a sort of “wow” thing going on, as in, “wow, what do we do with bees???”

You know, honey bees make the world go ’round. We depend on bees to pollinate trees and flowers and foods. Bees create the sweetest nectar in the world — honey. Bees are powerful and gentle all at once. Some people can die from a bee sting. Honey bees are busy and industrious and their world is so amazing, with the queen bee and the worker bees.

And I have to admit, I can only approach the bee hives, make sure they’re still healthy (because so many around the world are dying out), and wonder, OK, what next? Fortunately, the bee hives are harvested by a natural homeopath who sells the honey to people with allergies. He also does bee sting therapy.

Anyhow, I’m not in the league of people-who-keep-bees, and I’m not even sure I’ll ever aspire to that league. But I, too, am awestruck by honey bees and the people who nurture them. Amazing stuff.

Wondering do you want to see some snapshots of the Whistle Stop cafe, in Juliet GA? We watched the train come through town and ate a rather ordinary meal on melmac with the condiment being ketchup and vinegar. Cute town though…
this is from my blog – a visit from January 2006 – but it was fun to remember.

Linda, yeah! The pics are *great*. It’s a pretty old place, isn’t it? And small. What took you there?

With all this talk about Fried Green Tomatoes, I’m going to add the movie on my Netflix queue. I saw it ages ago, but it’s been long ago enough that I’ve forgotten most all of it. Recently, Dee mentioned wanting to see it again. She saw it last summer at a friend’s house. It’s a good movie to watch with middle-school aged kids, I think.

BTW, I was reading through the comments on this post and realized how many book titles there are listed. I was thinking about Jackie’s comment about carrying some of The Great Books in the trunk of her car. When I lived in Santa Fe, I learned about Saint John’s College (there’s one in Annapolis, too) and its curriculum based on The Great Books. I lamented that I hadn’t gone to a college like that. Good for you, Jackie. It’s a big goal to take on.

It is very small – Juliet – and is basically a movie set. It is the location where they filmed the movie, and is only one main street of tiny buildings and a railroad stop. I think it was almost a ghost town, rundown and moldy, till they revitalized it for the film. The trains go by all day with coal to a power plant. A couple of gift shops, some private old mill wooden houses, and the restaurant, which is not too clean. The food is fried everything, chicken, okra, taters and greens. But anyway, we went exploring there with our daughter and family, Noah was 4, visiting when they lived nearby in Georgia.

ps I will add here, I freaked when I saw your Child of the Earth. We used to have those clear-bodied aliens in our first sandy yard in Corrales, the kids called them white dragons. I thought they were scorpions but among the undead, like zombie bugs. We had moved from Taos where no such thing existed.

Noah has been studying an amazing bug book, where the dust mites are blown up a thousand times.

I wonder, would your recommend Juliette to something passing nearby? (Fried Green Tomatoes” had sort of a magical quality, and I wonder if going there “ruined” it for you, enhanced it, or was just simply neutral.

I’ve been to Madison County, Iowa where Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep filmed “The Bridges of Madison Country.” Much to my surprise, seeing all those wooden bridges and the spots in Winterset, Iowa that were in the movie added to my fondness for the story.

When you said the restaurant in Juliette is dirty, I imagined Itsey and Ruth shaking their heads is great disapproval.

Linda, I’ve got the same question Teri does. Did the trip change the way you felt about the movie? How did they play off each other?

BTW, great photos of the Whistle Stop Cafe at your link (Comment #61). It’s fun to see them. The film was released in 1991, I think. And looks like you visited in December 2005? I wonder if it has changed since then and if the town is still feeling revived.

I’m still interested in visiting there sometime. I just don’t know if it will be this June trip. So much to do in so little time. One thing I noted was how darn hot it was in August when they were filming the movie. And mosquitoes! It reminded me of my summers as a kid, sweating to death outside in Georgia. I never liked the heat and humidity. If I do visit, it might have to be fall or winter!

Do you know why there is a dragonfly on the cover of this book? I don’t remember what from the story points to that. I have the copy with the egg inside of a box. I assumed it meant Ann (the strong one) protecting Lucy (the fragile one). Or, maybe it symbolized Lucy who appeared strong on the outside but who was very breakable on the inside.

Teri, I admit, I had to do a little research on the image on the cover. I assumed it was a grasshopper, for the grasshopper and ant friendship that Ann Patchett refers to in Truth & Beauty. But then, it only looked partly like a grasshopper; so I had to see if grasshoppers had wings.

Yes, they do. Two pair. One in the front (slender), one in the back (wider and more membranous). So I’m guessing the image on the cover that I have is a grasshopper in flight. But in real life, we rarely get to see those wings because of how quickly a grasshopper flies from place to place. Does that make sense?

Oh, while I was researching, I found a short older interview with Ann. And here are a couple of grasshopper links. And a blurb on the grasshopper and the ant. You know how I am.

The Ant & The Grasshopper: Aesop (620–560 BC), a story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece told a tale called The Ant and the Grasshopper. In this tale, the ant worked hard preparing his shelter and stores of food all summer, while the grasshopper played. Once the winter came, the ant was prepared and the grasshopper, having no shelter or food begs to enter the ant’s house. The ant refuses and the grasshopper starves to death.

I don’t think that’s quite the way it seemed to happen with Ann and Lucy. But isn’t it weird how the Writing Topic this week was on insects and bugs.

Nice research, Bug Lady. I had forgotten the reference to Truth and Beauty about “the ant and the grasshopper.” I continue to feel anxious to read the Patchett/Grealy books again. I wonder how ybonesy is coming on that post. Hmmmmm….

Is there a reference in the book to boxes and eggs? I don’t want to send you off on egg research, and since your book doesn’t have the blue cover perhaps you shouldn’t have to care.

I would recommend the trip to Juliet as a byway – if you are passing through the area. It will interest you for about an hour. The feeling is reminiscent of a movie set, but it is actually occupied and so is not completely disneyland. The restaurant is real, just felt pretty funky to me, and not exceptional. Kind of white bread and gravy with hanging plants. But it was a little slice of life, and we enjoyed a pretty afternoon there, the last day of 2005. I imagine in the summer it could be pretty sultry.

Today I was thinking about the Depression, which in the 30s they called by that name, now god forbid, we are hesitant to say recession…but obviously we’re in something of a volatile economic funk, and I reread The Grapes of Wrath recently…with that captivating dialogue and the characters – it was great– except that in those days, Steinbeck was sure the Government would save everyone, they were the good guys. Who are the good guys now?

chickenlil, everyman, everywoman. I think the everyday woman and man are the good guys. The people that step in, give what they have, help others out. The longer I live, the more I am convinced of that.

I saw it in Fried Green Tomatoes. And I saw it again last night when I watched the movie Sweet Land. It’s about a few farmers in Minnesota in the 1920’s, how immigrants came to settle the land. It’s about real people pitching in to help other real people out. Really great movie.

This morning we are watching the commentary of the Director, Ali Selim. He’s going to be at the Minneapolis Central Library with Will Weaver on March 28th at 7pm. Will and Ali are going to discuss fiction writing, film making, and the process of adapting a story to a feature length movie.

I’m really looking forward to it. Sweet Land was a low budget project that Ali Selim spent 15 years writing – a work of passion. It’s inspired by the Will Weaver collection A Gravestone Made of Wheat & Other Stories. I haven’t read the the book yet.

Sweet Land starts off with a quote: Let us hope that we are all preceded in this world by a love story.

Teri, don’t know the reference to the box and the egg cover for the newer Truth & Beauty (Comment 68). I always wondered why they chose to change the covers when they reprinted. Is it to make them more modern? Or just to distinguish the newer editions from the older.

I kind of like the cover I have better. You’re on your own with the box of eggs. 8)

Maybe ybonesy can shed more light on the ant and grasshopper when she does her post.

Oh, BTW, I think Ann Patchett might indeed answer if you wrote to her. She said she’s a letter writer. And was very accessible when she signed our books. But then, she also said she gets 1000’s of letters. How could she possibly read them all?

Then I also remember something else she said – she doesn’t remember her books after she writes them. She’s moved on to the next one. She just lets go.

I just revisited the last Patchett post. What a great night that was. I felt like a writer.

Yes, I will try to write our dear Ann. As I recall, she lives in Tennessee; maybe my letter will arrive on a day she feels like reading fan mail.

I went to Bookhouse last night (used bookstore in Dinkytown), and found a first edition, hardcover copy of Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. Previously I had just checked the book out of the library to read. What a find. It’s in at least B+ condition. The 20-something clerk knew I was looking for it, and was thrilled I found it, too…in his “I’m a cool, unaffected University student” sort of way.

Incidentally, of Ann’s books I still have only read Truth and Beauty. I believe she has published 5 or 6 books. Perhaps I will make it an Ann Patchett summer. Or spring.

What a great find, a first edition Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy? I still haven’t read that book and it’s on my list to buy it. I can’t wait to see the first edition. Maybe I’ll try to find it this week, as I want to read it in conjunction with ybonesy’s post.

I’m in one of those strange states where I am in the middle of too many books. I used to have a rule that I would not start another book until I finished the last one. In my book excitement lately, I’ve been breaking my own rule. Consequently, I’m in the middle of The Magician’s Assistant still. I really like the book. But have too many going! I’ve got to complete a few before I start any new ones.

Hey, Teri what was up with Harper Lee on NPR? I missed it last night, didn’t get the message until too late. What’s going on with Harper?

I got in on the last 20-30 minutes of a program about Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. I know you’re very good about finding archived programs, so it will be easy for you to listen to. It was from 6-7 p.m.; Kerry Miller was hosting.

The author of Mockingbird (Charles Shields) was being interviewed, they were playing significant clips from the courtroom scene in the movie, and there was a high schooler who was part of the conversation, too. Since I miss the first 35 minutes myself, so I don’t know why exactly the conversation was happening.

What I did hear was fabulous, and the conversation we had in Taos about Harper’s disappearance after the book came out was tackled head-on.

I wonder if the propensity to read several books at once goes back to trying to read everything before we die. I abandoned the chick lit book I was half-way through yesterday. I wanted something easy, but it turned out I was just bored. I’m back on track today with the good stuff.

The letter to Ann is written and ready to mail. I’ll let you know if she writes back.

Teri, yes, I found the link to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird on MPR’s (Minnesota Public Radio) Midmorning Book Club with Kerri Miller. I’m listening to it as I work this morning. Great conversation around Harper Lee and the impact of the book, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Harper Lee wrote one novel, but it remains for many one of the best books they’ve ever read. Lee’s biographer and the actor who played Scout in the movie talk about “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the latest selection of the Midmorning Book Club.

Thanks for the link, QM. I look forward to hearing the complete program, and especially what Mary Badham said about playing Scout. I believe it was Sharon with an O who told us (in Taos) that it was the only movie Badham was ever in.

This MPR interview made two strong, clear points. A great deal of people return to this book once a year, it’s their touchstone. Many also said it was *the* book for them–the one that changed their lives.

I was wishing they would have asked Mary/Scout about Harper Lee being on the set. Although, by what she said, she was so taken with Gregory Peck she likely didn’t notice. Most of the people who called in said they had read the book for the first time in their young teens. I was amazed Mary/Scout didn’t get to it until her mid-20’s. Huh?

Teri, I was struck by that, too, how Scout/Mary didn’t read the book until she was in her 20’s. I thought it was interesting how she mentioned that playing the role of Scout as a kid came naturally because she had grown up in the South and many of the cultural conventions were familiar to her. It was also interesting that Charles Shields pointed out that racism is just as prevalent in the North. I’ve heard that from quite a few.

The MPR interview barely touches the surface. But if you put To Kill a Mockingbird in the context of 1962, it was risky. Even by today’s standards, it still generates conversation. Books like that help open people’s eyes to change. And if the climate in this country today is any indication, we are still in need of a few eye-openers.

Oh, I’m glad you mentioned the part about the film director intentially choosing child actors from the South! I actually thought of you and your Southern roots when Mary/Scout said that. Wasn’t it something like, “Well, they did that so they didn’t have to explain a whole bunch of stuff to us. It’s already the way we lived.”

Did you catch that Harper’s publisher told her to only expect to sell 2,500 copies of To Kill?

I wonder if there are redRaviners who return to a book in their lives over and over like the people who called into the radio show. I’d love to hear what they are.

There are two. One is Ulysses, primarily because it remains ever so problematic, perhaps even increasingly so with time ( I mean the time since it was written, not necessarily my increasing distance from youth – smile). The other is On The Road. I was quite inspired by that when I read it at 17. In one way I am afraid to go back, perhaps afraid that it will seem somehow lesser than it was at the time, which of course, may be merely part of realising that our heroes were really only ordinary people after all. Still, I have to say that good work tends to be even better down the line, so maybe soon….

neath, I’m glad you dropped in a response to Teri’s question (Comment 79) about what books we come back to. I’ve been thinking about it ever since she posed the question.

Your choices are good ones. Though I didn’t read On The Road until last year, I’m so glad I finally did. Kerouac broke open some of the writing molds and conventions with that book. And, well, it’s a classic about road trips across America.

I have the same fear about going back and reading books I once loved. I don’t want to take the risk of not liking them at a different point in my life. (Plus there are just too darn many other books I want to read.) I rarely go back and see a film again either – unless I really love it.

Great point about our heroes as ordinary people. I guess there are two sides to that. One is that our bubble is burst. The other is that — well, they are just like us. And we can rise to take the same risks we perceive them to have taken.

Ulysses, I have never read. But Liz is currently reading it. She had to turn everything in the house off the other night and be completely silent to make headway. It’s a tough read. She said she read recently that James Joyce planted all kinds of questions and enigmas in Ulysses with the intention of having people never figure them out.

I’m still thinking about what books I go back to. They are often nonfiction books about writing that I go to when I need an uplift or inspiration. I have to think about what novels I go back to time and again. Though I do have my favorites.

Teri, I’ve been meaning to come back to this post about Charles Shields (LINK) and To Kill A Mockingbird on MPR. It looks like he has a new book that comes out in April and I wonder if that’s part of the timing of the interview:

I AM SCOUT: A Biography of Harper Lee

The author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee adapts his best-selling title to bring to young readers the life of the unconventional, high-spirited woman who wrote one of the greatest novels of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird.

I just completed Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face, my second time through it. I’m going to follow it by a second reading of Truth and Beauty by Patchett. Last time I read this duo in the opposite order. I had completed forgotten how many references Lucy made in her book to truth and beauty…very clever of Ann to name her book what she did. It is so satisfying to read really good writing.

The letter I sent to Ann inquiring about the egg/box photo on her book came back as undeliverable. There were two addresses for her listed; I’ve tried the other one.

Teri, it’s great that you are reading these together. ybonesy, weren’t you doing that, too?

I want to read Autobiography of a Face. I haven’t read it yet. It would be good to then go back and reread Truth & Beauty. I didn’t know about the title coming from the content of Lucy Grealy’s book.

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how important relationships between writers are. We need a few close writers in our lives that know what we have been through and will stick with us through thick and then.

A larger writing community is important, too. But those couple of close writing friends – really, really important. Reading the Patchett and Grealy books together honors that relationship. I look forward to any other comments you might have about them.

I recently started another blog, Edenborough (http;//edenborough.wordpress.com) and just posted the start of a series that people here might find interesting called Elizabeth. I wouldn’t mind some feedback, especially about repeating the text under the image – not sure I need to do that? Thanks!

neath, I quickly checked out your new blog (and will look more when I can take the time it deserves) but about the text under the photo – I think you should include it. I love those images and the handwritten text. But I think it will only add for the reader to be able to read the text easily, separate from the piece.

I think you are on the right track with it. I wonder about taking the (parentheses) off and maybe adding italics. Or putting more space between the photo and the text under it. But my general feedback is that I like including the text.

That is a great series. It reminds me of another photographer I loved who used to write on the white border of his Polaroids. I have to remember the name – was it Minor White? Hmmm. More on that later! Congrats on your new blog.

The first time through Truth & Beauty I practically loathed Lucy. I read the book for a talking Taos workshop, and during the book discussion everyone wanted to rag on Lucy’s narcissism and Ann’s enabling. I remember Natalie trying to teach us how to read memoir, what to watch for in the author’s mind. We weren’t very good at it. Weeks later, after I read Lucy’s autobiography, I was much more forgiving.

Now I’ve seen, heard, and met Ann Patchett. Oh, I’ve also had my picture taken with her. It will be a much different trip through her book this time. That’s my guess.

I watched 3 PBS American Masters documentaries last weekend. Two of them were on well established writers.

One was on Zora Neale Hurston. She had so much fire and energy for her work. Yet she died of a stroke in Florida in relative poverty and obscurity. When she died, they took her things out and started to burn them, including her books.

According the documentary, a law enforcement officer said, “Hey, wasn’t she a famous writer at one time? We should save her books.” So they did.

Hurston was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1973 Alice Walker (one of my favorite writers — she was interviewed for the documentary) and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found an unmarked grave in the general area where Hurston had been buried and decided to mark it as hers.

Then the publication of Walker’s article “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” in the March 1975 issue of Ms. Magazine revived interest in her work and helped spark a Hurston renaissance. Hurston’s house in Fort Pierce is now a National Historic Landmark. I now want to read Dust Tracks on a Road, her memoir from 1942.

The other documentary was on Willa Cather. She is another strong-minded and independent woman who, at the end of her life, wanted to be left alone and became isolated. She had an amazing life, but was portrayed as being somewhat sad at the end. She wanted her lover and friends to burn all of their letters. They did. And she burned hers as well before she died.

I love Willa’s Southern and Midwestern (and New Mexico) ties. (I actually stayed in the Willa Cather room my first time at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house in 2001.) Isn’t it odd how one writer’s books were going to be burned and were saved at the last minute. And another writer actually *wanted* to have all her letters and written history burned? Fire. And fire. Ashes to ash.

I was inspired by both of these women. Yet there is nothing ideal about the way they lived. They each worked hard and struggled for their craft. They didn’t take no for an answer. They believed in what they were doing. They were quiet near the end.

I try to read while on breaks at work (which gets me into trouble sometimes . . . I get so into what I’m reading that I forget to go back to work!) and before I go to bed at night. Now that spring is here, I love to sit out in my comfy lawn chair, smoke a cigarette, and bury myself in a book. A few summers ago, I read the entire Lord of the Rings series that way . . . on the porch of my in-laws house in central Minnesota. Nothing beats welcoming the morning with coffee, a smoke, and a good book.

I too am usually in the middle of several books at once. Because I’m in school, I tend to read many books for classes, so I have to make time to read others stuff, just for fun. Since I’ve been studying memoir for a recent class and started by blog as a project about memoir, I’ve . . . well . . . read a few memoirs lately. The best was Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres. (I wrote about it over at my blog recently.)

Now I’m in the middle of The View from the Seventh Layer, a collection of short stories by Kevin Brockmeier. Amazing stuff.

Well, that about covers it. We are a big family, and we read alot. Barnes & Noble, our local used bookstore, and the library are our favorite places to hang out.

Brian, I commend you for finding the time to read other kinds of books (besides text books) when you are in school. It’s so hard to carve time out to read great literature. I find I have to consciously elevate it to the top of my list, then make the time.

Memoirs, I have been seeking out a new one to dive into. I need to read more memoirs. I’m going to read through all these comments again and choose one that appeals to me.

ybonesy likes to read short stories. She likes that form. We were talking about it recently at one of our red Ravine meetings. I am more likely to read essays. But once I begin a short story, I find it engaging. I don’t know why I lean to the essay form.

I like the title The View from the Seventh Layer. Thanks for leaving your comment on books. I love hearing about what others are reading. It inspires me. And I like to see how a person’s taste can change over time.

QM, this weekend I organized all our books on the bookshelves. When we moved into our house, which has lots of built-in bookshelves, I stuck everything up there with only the loose organization of “Jim’s go on these shelves, mine go on these other ones.”

Well, Jim just unpacked two shelves worth of a whole ‘nother set of books he’s held on to for years and years. Some from teenage years, others acquired about up to ten years ago. These are mostly science-fiction genre, books that he decided to keep back when he culled through all his books and donated about half to the library. These ones he kept were the ones he truly loved and would want to read again.

So, I took the opportunity to organize all his sci-fi books on two separate shelves, alphabetical order. Then I organized all our other books according to genre (history/non-fiction, memoir/creative non-fiction, poems/inspirational, short story collections, fiction). The art books and coffee table books are in yet a separate area. For the memoir/creative non-fiction and the fiction, I alphabetized by author.

This whole process got me so excited that I might even do a post about it. It shed a whole new light on what books I have, what books I don’t remember, what books I never read, what books I don’t even want anymore, and the big gaping holes in terms of books I wish I had. Also, it revealed some great books that Jim has (not sci-fi, since I don’t like that genre) that I can read: Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack London, Hemmingway, Ken Kessey, Kurt Vonnegot, Ray Bradbury, Heman Hesse, Edward Abbey (notice how all his authors are men?), and others.

ybonesy, that’s a great thing to do — organize all your books. Isn’t it inspiring to see what you have, run your fingers over the covers? I am starting to be able to see my bookshelves, too, since we moved some things that were waiting on studio space.

In fact, Liz asked if I had any books on symbols and symbology for one of her classes. And I was actually able to find about 3 books on it. A week ago, I couldn’t get to them. I love looking at the books on the shelves — the colors of their spines, the authors’ names.

I do need to weed down some that don’t mean anything to me anymore. I’ll keep all the classics, of course. I hope you do a post on it. It gets me excited about writing, too. I haven’t alphabetized mine yet. But they are in general categories. I’ll keep you posted as I go through them.

QM, A very quick reply about wanting to delve into reading a good memoir. One I can recommend is Meredith Hall’s Without a Map. It was one of those books I could not put down for the day and a half it took to read, and I have come back to it several times since and read parts over again.

Spiritdwel, thank you. Someone else mentioned that book to me, too, so I looked up Meredith Hall, and I think I would like Without a Map. (I like it by the title alone, BTW, since much of my fine art photography has had to do with the concept of mapping.)

There is a great interview with her posted on her website. She talks about her writing process, how it’s slow and methodical — different than the rough draft process she teaches to others. I hadn’t thought of it quite like that before – you can teach something very different from the way that you actually work. It gives students options for a way in to their work.

She also mentions being colleagues with Charles Simic who I think chickenlil mentioned recently. Didn’t she post one of his poems? I’ll have to find the link. Anyway, he’s an insomniac – great interview. Thanks for the tip, Spiritdwel.

After rollerblading on the Gateway Trail this morning, I spread a quilt on the ground and finished Truth & Beauty for the second time. I’ve decided definitely to make it an Ann Patchett summer. I’m going to read her books in order: The Patron Saint of Liars will be first.

After I read the last page today, I looked up at the clear sky and leafless trees and basked in the journey these women had taken me on. It felt abundant to be let into the world of the friendship Ann and Lucy shared…two writers who went from poor college students to successful authors. I watched how one life was undone, and one went on in peace. Very moving.

Teri, perfect day here to roller blade. Hasn’t the weather been great this week. Even with the rain…the grass has popped into green.

What was the biggest difference about the second time you read Truth & Beauty? Did you read it more slowly? Or take it in differently.

It’s a book I could read again, too, and I don’t do that with many books. I was fascinated by the two writers — the way they each walked in the world alone, and then, their relationship together.

And I had one other question – after reading both of their books twice, did you gain any insights into why one went in peace and the other’s life came undone? I’m trying to remember — I think it was Lucy’s book that became successful first. Ann had a few books out before one caught fire.

Ann was one of my favorites of the authors I have seen the last few years. She seemed confident and very comfortable — as a writer and a human being on this crazy planet.

The first time I read T & B I was *totally oblivious* to so much in the writing world that Ann describes. Now, a few years later, I know about the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, why Provincetown is such a big deal for writers, and who poets like William Carlos Williams were. It made the book really fun to read. I hadn’t read Autobiography of a Face the first time through T & B, so I didn’t understand Lucy’s story at all. I had more compassion for her struggle. Also, seeing Ann Patchett in St. Paul last fall put my mind in an entirely different space reading her work. It was personal; I was more interested and engaged having seen her on stage, having exchanged a few words while she signed our books.

Lucy was, of course, tormented by her face. It plagued her and chased her and made her miserable. But, she was also very popular, loved by the masses, and wildly talented. The easy answer to describe why she eventually killed herself with heroin was because of her face. But reading T & B this time, I couldn’t help but notice the constant need she had to be the most special, the most unique, the most gifted, the most popular. It added to her demise.

Ann just kept plodding along, one foot in front of the other. She didn’t crave the limelight, was content with a simple life in Nashville.

Teri, I didn’t know that was out. Thanks for letting us know. Hey, weren’t you just in the middle of another of her earlier books last time I talked to you?

I’m happy to have that fact validated again and again – that we need time to ourselves, to space out and stare out the window. I sure need that time. I have to create space inside or I get depleted and empty. I’m looking forward to checking out What Now?

Yes, I took a short detour from The Patron Saint of Liars to read Ann’s latest. There is a similar commencement speech Anne Lamott wrote that I’ve read a few times. Though I can’t remember which of her books it is in, I’m guessing someone on redRavine will. She talks a lot about the value of laying horizontal and gazing into space. She also pleads with everyone not to wear jeans that are so tight you can’t breathe or think.

If anyone feels any guilt/concern/uncertainty about the amount of time writers need to be still, stare into space, lay on the sofa, watch birds in trees, listen to waves…read this book. No more guilt.

I had one of those days yesterday. I was completely depleted and needed to just sit and refill the well. I vacillated between feeling guilty I wasn’t getting more done, and remembering your comment (and Ann Patchett’s and Anne Lamott’s wise words). Finally, near the end of the afternoon, I just gave in, and gave myself permission to just be.

Just a quick note here, I loved Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier – so recently picked up another of his novels, Thirteen Moons – and it is wonderful. Quoinmonkey, all of your “moons” are there – a poignant life-long love story and immersion in 19th century America, the trail of tears. Highly recommended.

chickenlil, thank you for mentioning Thirteen Moons (#103) It sounds like something I would love to read, as I have a deep interest in both of those areas. I’ve slowed down toward the end of the week and started paying attention to the moon again.

Last night as we were leaving the studio at 1am, there she was, shining next to a ghost shaped cloud, the only cloud in the sky. I mentioned to Liz that it might be full for Art-A-Whirl this weekend. We saw her rise over the studio from the large windows.

I was just thinking this morning, Maybe I’ll write my moon post by hand from Wisconsin this month. Same moon, perhaps different view. It sounds like Frazier’s book might be good to find and take along. Perhaps I’ll run into it along the journey.

Do You Let Yourself Read? I’m just finishing up Stephen King’s book called On Writing. It’s a fabulous book for writers. It’s supportive, practical, and doesn’t mince the necessary kicks in the butt needed. He talks again and again about reading: the great nonnegotiable. He says he’s a slow reader, but reads 70 to 80 books a year. I found it helpful to have a number as a touchstone, some starting point to consider my own quantity of reading.

Teri, I love that Stephen King book, On Writing. It’s one of my faves on the craft. He does give a kick in the butt with it, doesn’t he. Slow reader and 70-80 books a year? That’s impressive. I’m finally getting back to Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant again. I can’t put it down. The only thing that has pulled me away this weekend are the tornado warnings, 65mph winds, and touchdowns 20 minutes away. 8)

Ahhh…Ann Patchett. When I read her books I find I want to read them slowly, to make them last. Keep writing, Ann!

Another great thing about Stephan King’s book is all the other books he suggests to read to experience strong elements of writing like dialogue that really works. I’ve got a growing list of addition books growing on a piece of paper I’ve got tucked inside the front cover of On Writing.

Finished The Magician’s Assistant last night. I was sad to see it end. I wanted a Volume II — their life in LA after meeting each other. The book was set in Nebraska and California which was really great. I liked the geographical and cultural differences that she brought in. Sense of place is an area I am always interested in. I want to read another Patchett now. I’ll have to see which one.

Teri, it seems like a good idea to read other books that are strong in areas of writing that we need to learn or strengthen. Glad King provides that in On Writing (Comments #105 & 106). Hope you’ll share over time if you find one particularly useful.

When we were at Liz’s graduation, your friend G. said that Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto was the best (or nearly the best) novel she has ever read. If that’s the one you head to next, I’ll be anxious to hear your thoughts. I’m still on The Patron Saint of Liars.

Stephan King’s suggestions for masters of dialogue are Graham Greene, Peter Straub, and George V. Higgins (I haven’t read any of these guys). I plan to, though. Good dialogue is harder than it looks.

Another fun tidbit is that King forbids the use (or at least overuse) of adverbs. She keenly looked at the doctor. He abruptly closed his mouth. She gazed longingly at the moon. Now I’m seeing adverbs everywhere, and they’re beginning to make me wince.

I just read Louise Erdrich’s non-fiction — Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. Stunning read. If you love books — the history, smell, authors, sense of place they evoke — you’ll love Louise’s personal journey back to her Ojibwe homeland and the rare library she visits on an island in Rainy Lake. All of that ties in with her love of books and the land, and her reasons for starting Birchbark Books. Wonderful read.

It’s been good to be off-line for a bit. Spent time today with a good book – Flannery O’Connor’s The Complete Stories. I pulled it out after Liz and I researched some of what we would like to do in Savannah in July. Flannery was born and lived there through about age 12 or 13, before moving to Milledgeville, Georgia. I looked at other writers in the Savannah area, too.

Then I was checking out Alice Walker in Eatonville. And Carson McCullers in Columbus. I won’t be travelling to those parts of Georgia this trip, but maybe someday. It’s fun to learn about an area before travelling there — hard to maximize the short amount of time. I’m looking forward to it though.

Flannery died at 39, yet she wrote 2 novels and 32 short stories. Like McCullers, she wrote in the Southern Gothic style. I started with her first short story, The Geranium and went on to A Good Man Is Hard To Find, then a few others. She wrote of racism, the Holocaust, religion (she was Catholic in a mostly Protestant Evangelical South). She didn’t shy away from what was hard. Thomas Merton was one of her fans and they were good friends.

I noticed that when you compile all of a writer’s work over a lifetime, some pieces are going to be stronger than others. Some weaker. Not all are equal. And the best are scattered throughout — not just in the later or early years.

You can read also the Intro to her Complete Short stories, a great account of her personal and writing career history at the same site:

Great links, QM. I picked up that set of short stories in Taos, the last workshop of our intensive. My roommate had been a Flannery O’Connor fan (understatement), and not having read any of her work, I wanted to begin.

I have read several of the stories, some better than others. I especially enjoyed “Wildcat.” I am glad this is a complete work and hasn’t been cherry-picked. The editor talks about that in the introduction. I do think it’s valuable to readers to have that spectrum. Also, for aspiring writers, there is great value in seeing the variability.

I also enjoyed “Geranium,” I think, if I’m recalling correctly, the one where the main character’s old father moves to the city to live with his daughter. It gave such a tactile feel for racism at that time.

I loved seeing the picture of Flannery and the sheep in Iowa. I leave for the Iowa Writing Festival this Friday, and I’m reminded and thrilled to soon walk on the campus where Flannery strolled to class.

I have heard many people say that Flannery is their favorite author. Most commonly, these people have been men. She was my friend Steven’s favorite, and before he died I tried to read a lot of her work so I could talk to him about her stories. He became Catholic after he read her work. Well, a Catholic Buddist, that is. He said, “Since Flannery embraced Catholism, it opened the door for me, too.”

ybonesy, yes, that’s the theme of The Geranium. Her characters are dark in mood and temperament, and most times there is some kind of transformation that goes on — though sometimes it is too late for them. Her work is brave for the period she was writing, much the way Harper Lee’s work was. But Flannery kept going. She once wrote –“Grace changes us and change is painful.”

Teri, I had forgotten that about your friend, Steven. I don’t know yet if Flannery is one of my favorite authors (I need to read more of her work. I’ll keep you posted.) But I have great respect for her writing and the way she lived her short life.

She wrote to her best friend, Betty Hester, every week for almost 10 years. Betty donated the letters to Emory University with the restriction that they not be published for 20 years. They were released to the public last May 2007. I also read that Alice Walker is donating her papers, writings, and letters to Emory.

Teri, can’t wait to hear about your Iowa writing workshop. Keep us posted on your trip — walking in the footsteps of those who came before us.

Teri, I just had to go and look at that black and white photo of Flannery in Iowa again (at the link in #111). And the caption:

Flannery O’Connor wearing a muskrat fur coat during the winter in Iowa City while attending the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.

About Betty’s letters from Flannery, I read that they were released to the public last May. (From what I’ve read, I’m guessing they were more than friends. Hester ended up leaving the Catholic Church, and I can only speculate as to why. Flannery had been her confirmation sponsor.)

It seems like Betty has kind of a sad story, too. I read that she suffered from bouts of depression which seems to have led to her death (in her 70’s) of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ugh. Depression can be deadly if untreated. The privacy and hiddenness of their relationship reminds me of Willa Cather’s with her partner.

BTW, you’re making me chuckle about the Southern Gothic. I’m afraid I haven’t written much fiction, but I am drawn to read in that genre. And I’m no expert, but from what I’ve read, Gothic combines elements of romance, mystery, the supernatural, sometimes horror, the grotesque, big egos, racism, sexism, social behaviors in people that make many of us cringe. There is often an element of transformation of the character, too.

Southern Gothic does the same but in a way that explores the social issues and culture of the South. Writers who have been described that way: Faulkner, Welty, Capote, McCullers, O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Tennessee Williams.

BTW, I like what Austin says in that interview about the Woodbine and having to seek out pockets of lush decay in an urban environment:

Q. What is woodbine?

A. Woodbine, in popular usage, is an umbrella term for winding, climbing vines. You can loosely apply it to honeysuckle, ivy, Virginia creeper, or Carolina Jessamine, the state flower of South Carolina, which grows prolifically in the Southern coastal states in late winter and early spring.

Vines, flowery or leafy or bare, twining up columns and around rusting gates and over old tombstones, are the props in my personal mythos. (If you are an aspiring writer or an artist in any field, you might begin by exploring yours.) It’s mostly a fantasy, though. The South I live in now is urban. I have to go looking for the pockets of lush decay I’m drawn to.

Thanks for the primer on Southern Gothic. Will you be taking any along to Georgia? By the way, I’m excited to get reports on any homes or towns of writers you visit. I’ll plan on great photos; Cassie’s Porch (from your last trip South) is burned in my mind. That woman on the porch is surely Southern Gothic in the flesh.

Do you suppose the Betty/Flannery letters will be put in book form and distributed? I’d really like to read them.

Teri, boy, you bring up some old memories there with Cassie’s Porch. I had to go back and look at those photographs, now that you bring them up. It was about a year ago I did that post and red Ravine was so new back then:

BTW, that Southern Gothic woman on the porch whom you refer to is my great, great grandmother! I think I have enough greats in there. I love those photographs. Some great comments and memories from my mother in that thread, too. I’m looking forward to going back to the South.

RE: the Flannery O’Connor & Betty Hester letters, I don’t know if they’ll be put into book form or not. Or maybe they have and I just haven’t run into it. Maybe our readers will know.

There’s a small photo of a letter at an Emory link where you can kind of make out her handwriting. I like to look at that with writers:

I do hope to do a few posts from Georgia. But I don’t think I’ll be doing any reading (except for research). Last time I took a few books along and NEVER touched them. I was way too busy gathering and researching and doing interviews. And at the end of every day, I was exhausted! Liz will be there part of this time though, so maybe I’ll lighten up on myself a bit. And we do hope to spend one day at the ocean with Mom.

I was interested to read that Betty Hester also corresponded with Iris Murdoch. Iris is another writer I am anxious to read…sigh…add it to the ever-growing list.

I’m re-reading Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Coincidentally, in the section I read tonight she quotes Flannery O’Connor. “Flannery O’Connor said that anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.”

Teri, I read that, too, that Flannery corresponded with Iris Murdoch. And I’m showing my ignorance here, but I had to look her up. What a prolific writer. Once I read about her work, I immediately wanted to read it, too.

Her first published novel, Under the Net (1954), was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

I wonder how she and Flannery met each other. How did you get interested in Iris Murdoch?

I’ll see just about any movie Kate Winslet is in, so when “Iris” came out, I was in line for a movie ticket. That, frankly, was my first exposure to Iris Murdock. I have the book Under the Net, but haven’t read it yet.

[…] Must-See Charlie Rose interviewed Lucy Grealy on November 16, 1994. She is the last guest on his hour-long program. Her interview starts approximately at 38:20 on the youtube video below. [Note: It’s advised that you let the show run its course versus trying to fast-forward to the start of the interview; the latter might cause audio and video to get out of sync.] -Related to posts Ann Patchett – On Truth, Beauty, & The Adventures Of “Opera Girl” and Book Talk – Do You Let Yourself Read? […]

Yesterday Brant & I went shopping at Borders. We purchased 6 age appropriate books for him. Our goal is that he read a book a week & then take it home to read to his Daddy. He read an entire book yesterday!
R3 called today & informed me about a reading program provided by our local newspaper that rewards children for the amount of books a child reads during the summer months! Brant is so excited now & determined to read as many as possible. Looks like we will be making more trips to the bookstores & library sooner than I thought! D

diddy, how wonderful! I just love that you are doing that with Brant. What a great way for grandparents to spend time with their grandkids. And then he goes home and reads it to his Dad. So great! Thanks for the inspiration. Will look forward to hearing how it goes as summer progresses.

Remember how we had Weekly Readers during the summer months? When I was growing up, I think I got it by mail. And then we had some kind of library on wheels that came around sometimes. I can’t quite remember the details. I suppose a lot has changed since then. It’s so heartening to read about kids who still love to read.

Brant, the turtle twirl?! That sounds wonderful! We write about turtles sometimes on red Ravine. I’m so PROUD of you for reading your books this summer. Reading is so much fun. I hope I get to see you when I’m there in July. Maybe you’ll read me one of your books! 8) — Aunt QM

Back in March (comment #72) I decided to write to Ann to get to the bottom of the box and egg cover. I got a postcard today! This is what she said about the cover: “….about the cover of Truth and Beauty. I had nothing to do with it but I like it a lot. I think you’re right-fragile egg, protective box = Lucy + me, but I like the fact that it’s open to interpretation. It’s a cover that makes you think instead of being an illustration. Also, I love the paperback cover of the grasshopper and ant….”

There’s a bit more, but knowing how QM likes to photograph and post postcards, I’ll save the rest.

Teri, first, thanks for referencing the “box and egg cover” comment. I had forgotten about that one, not to mention I had never seen anything other than the ant and grasshopper cover. Interesting, her response back. I’m trying to think if there was any reference to Lucy as box and Ann as egg. I can’t think of a one, and I have to say, it’s a creative mind that actually makes that connection. Ant and grasshopper was much more literal for me.

Second, kudos to you for sending these postcards out to so many authors and poets. It’s like a practice for you, or so I see it that way. The responses you’re getting are absolutely phenomenal. And, it’s like a conduit to these quite famous writers for us here at red Ravine. Thanks!!!

ybonesy, it’s true! I saw the postcard from Ann Patchett over the weekend and I have to say it was a thrill to read it. There is something so nice about seeing a writer’s handwriting on a postcard, something you know they took the time to sit down, write, and mail. Wonderful!

Teri showed me the cover of her hardcover Truth & Beauty, too, and it feels so different to see the box and egg than it does the cover I have of the illustration of the grasshopper and ant. I guess the box and egg cover came first.

I’m always amazed at how showing appreciation for other writers and artists and their work comes back to us a million fold. And at the great generosity of the writers we have run across.

Thank you, Teri for sharing your postcards! I had planned to photograph the Ann Patchett postcard on Saturday night, but then it completely slipped my mind before I left. I’ll have to do that when I get back. Or at the next poetry reading. (Maybe you’ll even have another by then!)

I’m happy to share. I feel like the postcards are a gift for all of us. Maybe someday someone who reads red Ravine will be in the position of getting letters from appreciative readers. And they will remember how much a simple response means.

Do you have any political dreams? I just left a comment about this book on another piece (If You Can’t Say Something Nice… (LINK) and thought I’d drop it here, too. With 24 days left until we vote for the next President of the United States, it seems like the subconscious dialogue could be kind of compelling.

I heard about this book on a Public Radio’s Weekend America piece called Political Dreams. It’s about the political dreams people are experiencing right now as this race rushes on. The book is by Kelly Bulkeley and is called American Dreamers: What Dreams Tell Us About The Political Psychology Of Conservatives, Liberals, and Everyone Else.

I look forward to hearing more, Teri. I have Word by Word—it was one of the several I started before stopping myself and deciding to read books in a more serial manner versus having many in process at the same time. I guess I could go back now and finish it, as I don’t currently have any books going, except finishing up one with Em.

Today (Monday) I’ve decided to go back to holding myself to a strict reading diet: only two books going at a time. Besides the current novel (Rosie), I’m also allowing myself the treat of Stephen King’s On Writing again. It is such a good read, and funny, too.

What a great observation by Teri (comment #140) on who was reading what.

How fun would it be to notice what everyone is reading the next time you’re at a local spot, and then share the info. It would be fascinating to see what is going on in the reading spots around the country (and world)

And the addition of the ages is fascinating – the 16 yo reading the Odyssey? Whoever woulda thunk!

When I saw my nephew reading the Odyssey, I had the same reaction, Bo. I haven’t read it myself, and have only a sketchy idea of what it is about. He has an English teacher who pushes her students in ways that are refreshing and brave. Luke lives on a farm and goes to a rural high school; there are probably 100 kids in his 10th grade class. Somehow that make the story even better, doesn’t it?

Mrs. G. probably has a future writer or two in her 10th grade English class. They’ll never forget her. Oh…by the way…Mrs. G. (like me) had Mr. Schminda for a high school English teacher. She no doubt has read *all* the books on his famous list.

[…] put too much of the credit on our shoulders, but I think blogs that encourage reading (see our post “Book Talk – Do You Let Yourself Read” as one of many examples, and “The World According To Mr. Schminda (et al.)” for a list […]

Wanted to drop in a little blurb from 2/17/9 that I heard on The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. It was about the birthday of the Queen of Crime, British novelist Ruth Rendell (Or Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE). Amazingly, even though I love mysteries, I haven’t read any of her books. But what I was struck by was her practice around her writing each day.

Every morning she writes for four hours, and then she eats the exact same lunch: bread, cheese, salad, and fruit. It reminds me of how so many writers have a morning practice that revolves around a set number of hours and, many times, coffee, tea, or some kind of food is a part of their routines. Or breaking for a sandwich at lunch. Then they have the rest of their day free. Get up the next morning, write again.

It’s so simple — write for 4 hours, eat the exact same lunch every day. Ruth Rendell is the best-selling author of more than 50 books, many of them under the pseudonym Barbara Vine (a name that derives from her own middle name and her grandmother’s maiden name). Now I want to read one of her psychological thrillers.

According to Keillor she was also fired from her first job as a journalist after she wrote a story about a Tennis League dinner without actually attending it, and failed to mention in the story that the keynote speaker had died in the middle of the speech. I guess she was meant to write fiction!

Her novels include A Judgment in Stone (1977), King Solomon’s Carpet (1991), and her most recent, Portobello (2008).

QM, today was half price day at the Salvation Army Store, and because the weather was a warm 33 & I decided to take advantange of the nice sunshine & venture out. I scored 4 books. One I plan on reading first is titled Walking The Trail by Jerry Ellis. It is based on the Cherokee Nation in 1838, when U.S. soldiers forced 18,000 Indians that were rounded up in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, & North Carolina & to walk a 900 mile trail to reservations in Oklahoma. Many thousands died along the way. It is known as the Trail of Tears. The author, a descendant, began to follow the trail in 1989, & the story is his experience of the 900 mile walk. This book is hard cover & never read by the previous owner. It cost me 75 cents. I’m looking forward to reading it. Have you heard of this trail?
On a sadder note, J & I watched the evening news & a local county is being forced to destroy 90,000 childrens books, published after 1985, because they could contain lead & they have no way of testing for it. So many books, some not containing lead, but all will have to be destroyed. Sad. D

diddy, finally had a chance to come back and read the detail in your comment on Walking the Trail by Jerry Ellis. I see you did mention that he actually does walk part of that 900 miles. (Sorry if I asked you to repeat in the other comment line on the Georgia Highlandersd.)

I’m stunned by your comment on how local county in Pennsylvania is destroying 90,000 children’s books. That’s a sobering, staggering number of books. How in the world did lead get into the books? And why after 1985? I’ll have to look for that story. I’m sure it’s being covered on PBS or NPR or something. That’s a sad story.

QM, the number is sobering. I was so saddened by the news. The same is happening to second hand shops that sell childrens used clothing. That’s where I buy a lot of stuff for Brant, except of underwear & socks, due to the fact that he continues to grow.
As for the books, both E & A were young in those years & exposed to many of the books under consideration. My question is why now do we hear of this?
Oh, & the book is wonderful, though I have read mixed reviews. I think people tend to misunderstand that that many years have passed & it truly is a dedication to his ancestry. D

Hi QM: Since you mentioned Natalie Goldberg assigning books for the intensive on this post, I thought that you might be interested in the reading list for the 2009 intensive.

For February, we were assigned to read:

“Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement” by John Lewis;

“Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko; and

“Triggering Town” by Richard Hugo.

The books assigned for June are:

“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz;

“Red Azelea: Life and Love in China” by Anchee Min;

“Departures” by Paul Zweig (out of print, available used;)

“The Situation and the Story” by Vivian Gornick; and

“Heat” by Bill Buford.

The assigned reading is one of the gifts of the intensive for me, because it exposes me to books and authors that I may never have found on my own. My favorite book from February was “Triggering Town.” Others liked “Ceremony” best. John Lewis had a co-writer. His book was assigned not for the writing, but for being a memoir of an important time in history , relevant to the Inauguration of President Obama.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I also felt the book assignments were one of the greatest gifts of our Intensive. And the idea that you don’t have to like or not like a book, that the book has something to teach you regardless of how you feel about it.

My friend Carolyn and I were talking last night about Annie Dillard. She is a brilliant writer, yet I have a hard time relating to her life. She had a privileged life, very Walton-Lake, as Carolyn put it, and I couldn’t get past looking at that life and resisting it. (I’ve said the same thing about Fitzgerald.) But sheesh, if I don’t move through my resistance, I miss so much.

Well, I will look up some of these books. I’ve been wanting to read Junot Diaz for some time; he was here recently or is coming soon (Santa Fe, Lannan Speaker Series) but his performance sold out within about 20 minutes of going for sale. :(

breathepeace, thanks so much for dropping the book titles here. I agree with ybonesy, the reading lists were some of the greatest gifts of the Taos workshops. I read things I probably never would have picked out for myself and grew in the process.

And like ybonesy’s saying, you learn that you don’t have to like the author to love the book or vice versa. Pushing through a book I don’t like and completing it is a form of discipline, I think, that I learned after studing with Natalie. Many times, I did like the book though. And learned to love many of the authors after I learned about their lives, and not just the sound bites on book covers.

One who sticks out on your list for me is Vivian Gornick. I have not read The Situation and the Story but I have read her memoir Fierce Attachments. Very well written. She’s a controversial writer and feminist and keeps women’s issues at the forefront.

I read this interview in the Boston Review (from around the time her book The Men In My Life came out) where she talks about misogyny, feminism, and Jewish-American writers like Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Though I feel the interviewer is a bit leading with her questions, it really brings women’s issues to the forefront that many are still reluctant to talk about, even after all these years. Whether you agree with her or not, it’s good read; it makes you think.

I did like a couple of things Vivian said. One’s on what drives her to read a particular book:

There are people who feel obliged to read right up to the minute, whatever’s new and talked about. I’m not one of those people. I have never read with an agenda. But I do feel that I have my job as a reader, to engage fully with whatever I’m reading, that’s the only thing that matters.

The other is on the fate of feminism, something I often discuss with other women who went through the second wave Feminist Movement in the 60’s and 70’s (the first was in the 1920’s). The question always comes up, what’s feminism in the 21st century? What do women need to focus on in terms of rights today. I liked her answer:

The fate of feminism as a force, as a philosophy, as an action, as a vision, as a yearning will go on spreading its way through until it accomplishes its goals. My generation was very lucky to be alive in a time when it reawakened with visionary force.

A struggle for equality just doesn’t complete itself. Every fifty years it reawakens with new force, and it makes this much progress, and then it stops. But it never goes back to where it was before. It’s the longest and the oldest struggle in history. There’s more fear and anxiety attached to equality between men and women than anything else. Everyone’s afraid of it, men and women alike. That’s our problem.

Posterity will regard Vivian Gornick’s The Situation and the Story with the same unqualified esteem as readers now hold William Strunk, Jr.’s Elements of Style: it is a classic handbook that will be in use for years to come.

All the news in the Twin Cities is about the return of Sara Jane Olson (Kathy Soliah-Symbionese Liberation Army) to St. Paul to serve out her parole. I presume it’s big news in California, too, but don’t know if the rest of the country is being hit as hard as we are with the current controversy.

It has renewed my interest in the Patty Hearst kidnapping, and I’ve started reading her autobiography called Every Secret Thing. I’m 50 pages into the book, and fascinated. It was a young teen when Patty was kidnapped, and haven’t thought much about her since. As I’m reading about what Patty was living through in the closet where she was confined, I can play YouTube news clips from 1974 to hear what the media was reporting.

I’ve look ahead, and I see that Sara Jane/Kathy appears later in the book. I can’t wait to read about her, especially since I may run into her at the grocery store soon.

I just read that Sara Jane is landing at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport early this evening. Though I’m far too lazy to drive through rush-hour traffic to the airport, I wish I was there to witness the hullabaloo when she arrives.

Yes, that was all fascinating when it happened. I was about 13 and couldn’t believe this young woman (Patty Hearst) was doing such a wildly rebellious thing. Also about that time my parents’ best friends’ daughter left her family to join a cult. It all seemed kind of wrapped up together in my mind, the idea that people could suddenly transform into rebels.

Teri, Liz and I watched all the hullabaloo on the news last night about Sara Jane Olson, too. And the MSP airport scene where there were so many reporters who followed her right up to her doorstep. Seems like her neighbors are glad to have her home. Let us know how the Patty Hearst biography turns out. You know what was strange was that Liz and I were watching a documentary about the SLA and Patty Hearst about the time the last ruckus came about with Sara Jane Olson. It was purely coincidental. After she was on the news, we went back and looked for her and, sure enough, there she was in the documentary.

That whole time period of our country’s history is so chaotic and strange. How do you feel about her getting off the hook at this point, years later? I kind of have mixed feelings. I think I saw on the news that people did die from the pipe bombs she took part in exploding. A hard moral issue. Complex. I watch shows all the time on TV where criminals get off with only a few years for murdering other people. It’s a crazy world we live in.

ybonesy, what happened with the daughter that joined a cult? Just curious if she made it out. Remember how they used to do those interventions from cults and there were professionals who would help drag the person away from the cult, sometimes under cover of darkness? How do those kinds of choices happen? Good question.

Yes, they did “snap” her. That’s what it was called. I remember when that was happening, too. Of course, shortly after the time she fell in with the cult, my circle of friends were passing around the book Helter Skelter about the Charles Manson murders. So in my head everything cult-like was tangled up with gruesome murders.

We even used to go hang out in an old cattle slaugther house that was right on the river. It was abandoned but you could still see the blood from the slaughters stained in the old wood. It was so eerie, exactly the kind of place I imagined Charles Manson would hang out.

Later, when my parents’ friends worked with an expert to “snap” their daughter, I was of course intrigued. I had known the younger sister, who was one year older than me. I don’t recall what cult it was that the older daughter joined, but apparently the intervention worked. My mom ran into the mother, who is now quite old, and this older daughter just the other day at a funeral. I always wonder about that experience.

Oh, strange term, to “snap” someone. I didn’t remember that. So it sounds like those interventions can sometimes work. I do think it would be fascinating to hear your friend’s story. Wonder what she remembers about the cult or if she even wants to think about it. She could write a book on her own experience.

Hey, speaking of books, I don’t usually follow the online news but happened to click over yesterday and read about that creepy Josef Fritzl guy. Holy cow, that guy is SO disturbed. I could barely read the details of that story. Rape, incest, enslavement…and where was the mother during all this? Ugh.

What I wanted to comment on though was that I read that there may be some laws or rules governing whether or not Fritzl can write a book on all that, or write his story and publish it for money. There are some money entanglements. Can’t you see a guy like him wanting to cash in on all that? I’m still stunned by that whole story. I don’t understand the things humans do to each other, even their own flesh and blood.

I’m nearly half-way through the Patty Hearst book, and really intrigued. For me, it’s one of those books I can’t wait to get to. One I’m not going to be happy to see end. Sara Jane (Kathy Soliah) has just entered in the book…a waitress in Berkley. For obvious current event reasons, it’s a bit thrilling to read about her.

I’ve watched so many YouTube clips about the SLA now, including the sentencing 7-ish years ago. The middle-aged people receving sentences for these 1970’s crimes look so ordinary; the people in the book are so delusional they seem mentally ill.

Will Sara Jane/Kathy write her own memoir? How did she transition from such a bizarre club to quiet living?

Teri, did you see that Sarah Jane Olson was on the local news again last night? This time State Representative Mary Kiffmeyer, a former Secretary of State, wants to see long-time fugitive Sara Jane Olson prosecuted for voter fraud for using her alias when she voted in MN.

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said she won’t look into this case because she already did 10 years ago and there is no voter fraud. Apparently, Kathleen Soliah changed her name to Sara Jane Olson when she married, registered to vote with that name in 1990 and voted with it in 1998, all perfectly legal.

You are right, sometimes it is hard to reconcile now middle-aged people as criminals on the FBI’s list of most wanted in the 1960’s. Yet, innocent people died as a result of their actions. It was such a crazy time. It seems like the bottom line in most of these cases is when has someone served enough time for their crime.

Uh-oh . . . a little known fact about Flannista. She worked in the FBI Laboratory at the time of the Patty Hearst kidnapping, in the room where all the evidence came in for a file number.

Most of the time the evidence in high profile cases such as the SLA and the Hearst kidnapping would never make it to us lowly file clerks, but I was friends with the special agent in charge of the case. He let me see all the stuff that came in from that shoot-out/fire that killed Nancy Ling Perry and her lover and their siamese cat, including the melted machine guns and what was left of the molotov cocktails they had ignited underneath the house, etc. I was even the Patty Heart “stand-in,” wearing the clothes, including the beret, she had on the day the SLA robbed that bank. I saw and heard the tapes that Cinque sent to that radio station, read the analysis from the Radio and Engineering experts.

All to say, that Patty was brainwashed — and the FBI seemed to backtrack from their initial analysis once she was put on trial.

That’s really amazing. I’m surprised you didn’t become an FBI agent, Flan. BTW, I didn’t remember at all about the Siamese cat. Only cat lovers would recall that detail. 8) Wow, you were a stand-in, too. You know what’s strange, when I went to the studio the other day, one of our studio mates was working on a piece with that pop-up photo of Patty Hearst in her beret with the machine gun. It was almost surreal. She wasn’t there so I couldn’t ask her if it was related to recent reappearance of Sarah Jane. BTW, Flan, do you think all of them were brainwashed, including Sarah Jane? I’d be interested to hear your take on that.

I held that very gun Patty was holding in that pop-up photo, QM. And I didn’t make it through agent school because I’m blind in one eye. Couldn’t aim the damn gun straight. That seems like a life time ago.

I can only comment on Patty Hearst because I actually read the Radio and Engineering analysis of the Cinque tapes. The FBI technical experts were so talented that they could surmise the year and make of the trailer she was initially held in by the sound of the door opening and closing! They surmised that Patty was being forced to speak into the microphone against her will because they could hear/sense hands around her neck keeping her head in place. They heard the paper she was reading from. They determined the place Cinque had been born and raised from his accent; that he had once been a boxer by the sound and pace of his breathing. Fascinating stuff. All to say, that yes, I believe without a doubt that Patty was brainwashed. I don’t know enough about Sarah Jane to posit an opinion, but my hunch is, she was, too.

Oo-lala, Flannista! As I am currently steeped in the Sara Jane/Patty Hearst stories, I am really amazed that you were privy to all that evidence! It’s delicious in sort of a spooky way.

What do you mean about being a “stand-in” for Patty Hearst? That sounds like you were in a movie. I’m fascinated by what the FBI can deduce from a squeaking door or the pace of someone’s breath.

Patty doesn’t mention a cat in her book at all. Having a pet in the houses during her captivity would have made a positive difference (I’d think), but perhaps she wasn’t allowed near it, or it came on the scene once she was separated from the part of the group who died.

If Minnesotans weren’t so desperately sick of the Al Franken/Norm Coleman Senate seat battle, perhaps Sara Jane’s situation would gain some ground amongst the people. But these days, when I hear anything along the lines of “Voting Irregularities” I want to put my hands over my ears and scream.

By the way (back to books), since I’m on a roll here with hippie-type criminals, I’ve got Helter Skelter on hold at the library. Has anyone read it?

Teri, yeah I know what you mean about the voter irregularities. When Liz and I heard that news about voter fraud last night, we just looked at each other and rolled our eyes. Helter Skelter, oh my gosh, I think I did read it. I remember the details of all that Manson stuff being splashed across TV for days, then LIFE magazine had him on the cover. It was totally bizarre. Once in a while he still pops up in the news and you can see how much he’s aged. He doesn’t seem to have changed a bit. How can a person have no remorse for a crime like that? It’s crazy.

Well, that person can be dangerously mentally ill or a Misfit like the one in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (it’s my matron saint’s birthday today).

I read Helter Skelter when it first came out. I used to be fascinated with awful crimes like that one and Jeffrey MacDonalds (Fatal Vision), etc. Then I discovered books on the Holocaust and genocide and never turned back.

To prepare for Hearst’s trial, the FBI re-enacted the robbery to get bullet directions etc., so I wore her clothes and held the gun, walked through her paces during the robbery, in a set recreated to look like the bank. I’m a lot taller than she is, but I had her same facial features at the time — you know, that “DEATH TO THE WHITE MAN WHO RUNS CORPORATE AMERICA!!!!” look that I still basically flash, though without the gun or beret these days.

I actually saw what was left of the charred cat that belonged to Nancy and Camilla. Their remains were off limits, though they were in the FBI Laboratory.

Teri — look at me, babe. The “Oo-lala” at the beginning of your comment initially caused me some concern until I whirled my desk chair around and peered at the nearly 100 books I have on the Holocaust. Yeah, it is delicious in sort of a spooky way. My beloved’s mother gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for Christmas with the condition that I NOT purchase anything about the Holocaust with it. Ya gotta pace yourself.

I was on a writing intensive with someone who knew everything (Everything!) about Lincoln’s assassination. I think she was a little worried about herself, but we all listened in awe when she would tell us little-known facts. I wonder if you’ve traveled to the concentration camps in Europe.

So, I presume it was the Hiberia Bank (not the Crocker) where you role-played. Did you watch those herky-jerky security videos to learn how to rock back and forth on your feet like Patty was doing?

Hmmmm — are you referring to me and the Lincoln assassination because I just checked the number of books I have on that and they outnumber the books I have on the Kennedy assassination 2 to 1. In eighth grade American History class, we were assigned to craft an object symbolizing American history. One kid made a replica of that spike that connected the transcontinental railroad. Another made Betsy Ross’ flag. I made a miniature replica of the stage of Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot, complete with Booth hanging on a thin wire as I wanted to catch him in mid-jump before he uttered, “Sic semper tyrannis!” as he limped across the stage after landing badly and snapping the fibula bone in his left leg just above the ankle.

Never been to the concentration camps. From what I heard they are sacred places, much like that cemetery France constructed for American soldiers who lost their lives on June 6, 1944. And well they should be.

Anyhoo, in case anyone is concerned about my mental state, I also have quite a collection of New Yorker cartoons!

It’s the birthday of Barbara Kingsolver, born in Annapolis, Maryland (1955). She started writing fiction when she was pregnant and had horrible insomnia. She wrote every night, but she didn’t want to disturb her husband, so she worked on her novel in a closet. It was the story of a young woman who decides she needs to get out of her small town in Kentucky, and drives across the country to Arizona. The novel was The Bean Trees (1988). She said:

It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their writing. The best I can think to tell them is: Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.

A great author, and so I’m glad Liz let us know it was her birthday. I want to read her memoir but also haven’t. Worked on her novel in a closet. A common theme among so many writers–they do whatever it takes to get it (let it) out.

I went to a presentation at the Minneapolis Public Library last night, an interview of two big-city newspaper book editors. It was moderated by Minnesota Public Radio, and the entire focus was on what is happening in publishing. The first question asked was something along the lines of, “Is book reading as we know it a dying tradition?” One of the editors said, “I have six words for you. Harry Potter. Dan Brown. Twilight Series. Dan Brown’s new book has a first publishing run of 5 million copies.”

It went on from there, with lots of talk about Kindle, e-books, the internet, MySpace, etc. People from the audience really pushed them about books in paper form vs. books in electronic form. Neither of them could be swayed about the place traditional books have currently and going into the future. Music to my ears.

They talked about supporting Independent book stores (they said the smart ones are making it), not supporting e-books (they hope it is a trend, and the greatest threat financially to publishing right now), and the new role of self-publishing.

Teri, that is good news about books, books, books. I’m curious about the new role of self-publishing. How does that play into publishing and book sales according to what you heard last night?

The thing about e-books that I like is that you can find some VERY old books that are hard to find or no longer exist in tangible book form. I can totally see it as a way to archive the past. But I’m not fond of it for new releases. I think Liz was telling me that Stephen King was actually a proponent of Kindle. I have to admit, I don’t know much about it. But the thought of being chained to a computer more than I am now is not appealing. I love the feel of a good book in my hands.

If I look at my daughters and their friends as an example of young people today, they are reading boucoup books. I mean, Dee goes through a new book a week, in addition to her required reading. And she usually buys them.

Em got a $20 gift card to our independent bookstore for her birthday, and another gift card to Borders.

Both of the editors talked about their children’s reading habits, too. You echo what they said. The library rep also chimed in about the huge spike in books being checked out (during this economy).

It was simply a hopeful conversation to listen to, by people who didn’t seem interested in glossing over the truth. We hear so much gloom and doom about young people and their attachment/addiction to electronics. It was quite nice to hear people weigh in with different stats.

Author David Rhodes is streaming online at Kerri Miller’s MPR Midmorning. I saw him with Teri at the downtown Minneapolis Public Library this year, part of Talk of the Stacks. A wise man, the talk was excellent.

From MPR:

Novelist David Rhodes released three highly acclaimed novels when he was in his 20s, and then was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. He joins Midmorning to discuss his first novel in more than 30 years, and the long road back to writing.

Hear him right now streaming live from MPR (there’s a break for the news, then they will be back with the interview). (If you miss it, I’m sure it will be archived and rebroadcast.)

I just heard that Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes) is gravely ill, and not expected to live. When I read his book, I remember how much I craved bacon and eggs. He wrote in such detail about being hungry, and smelling the breakfast of neighbors who had enough money to eat.

Teri, sad about Frank McCourt. Looks like he has meningitis, was recently treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and is in hospice (LINK). I never read Angela’s Ashes. ybonesy, have you read it? It sold millions of copies. Strange to think how our words, the books written, long outlive some of us. For others, whatever is written is relegated to relative obscurity.

Yes, I read Angela’s Ashes. It was an epic life story, one of the first memoir’s I read before I ever knew of the genre. Sad about Frank McCourt. Meningitis seems like a rare kind of thing to contract.

The library has a sound recording of Frank reading Angela’s Ashes, so I’m going to pick that up along with the movie that was made based on the book. Considering my reaction the first time I read the story, maybe I should stop at the grocery store for bacon and eggs, too.

I saw an interview of three authors together, Frank and Nikki Giovanni being two of them. It was long after the Pulitzer and wealth were Frank’s. He spoke in such bitter terms about all the people who expected him to volunteer his time. He said if people want his time, they can pay him for it. This was in stark contrast to Nikki who talked about volunteering in schools to help reading programs. It was startling to hear how resentful he was…as though the poverty had settled into him as a child, and he never got out from underneath its. Then again, maybe he was having a bad day. Who knows? But he made his opinion known.

It’s interesting what Frank McCourt says (in the LA Times link above) about not writing the book while his mother was alive. Something I seem to hear a lot lately from people who are writing/want to write memoir. I wonder if it keeps them back. Or something frees up at some point.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his grim childhood in an Irish slum was written after he retired as a New York City schoolteacher.

“I certainly couldn’t have written ‘Angela’s Ashes’ when my mother was alive, because she would have been ashamed,” McCourt told the Hartford Courant. “Her generation and my generation, to a certain extent, were never proud of having grown up in poverty and adversity. We always wanted to give people the idea that we grew up in kind of middle-class, or lower-middle-class, circumstances.”

“F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I’ve proven him wrong,” McCourt later explained. “And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools.”

Went to see writer Mary Karr last night, author of The Liars’ Club. She’s got a new memoir out, Lit. We bought that along with one of her poetry books, Sinners Welcome. She’s a poet at heart.

She said it took her 7 years to write Lit. And she cut 1000 pages. Her advice to writers: read, read, read. And get your butt down into the chair and write.

She answered tons of audience questions, does not shy away from her truth. I found her to be very accessible. It reminded me of the work it takes to be a writer. All the shifts and life changes writers go through to get where they are.

This week I discovered a wonderful audio series at the library: “The Big Read,” by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each CD is about 25 minutes long, and features one book. So far I’ve listened to My Antonia (Willa Cather), and Call of the Wild (Jack London).

The CD offers just the right combination of background about the author and excerpts from the book to both educate and get you excited to read. There are excerpts who talk about the authors, and famous actors who read the texts.

I highly recommend. Gotta go. Carson McCullers and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is next.

Teri, what a great find. I think I’ve seen The Big Read on either Facebook or Twitter. I didn’t realize they were in CD form though. Thought they were promoting hardcopy books. That’s a great way to learn about writers. Had you read My Antonia before you listened to it? I think I remember that you read Call of the Wild. Am curious about Carson McCullers, too. Did you like it? (I love her name.)

From here I can see a young woman reading Fahrenheit 451, a man reading the Star Tribune, a boy reading a thriller-ish looking novel, a woman writing a memoir about her premature daughter, and a mother at a table with four grown children. She’s presented them all with a new book and canned food they like. The books were wrapped, the cans they get plain.

What a fantastic check-in from the Blue Moon. I love hearing what everyone is reading. I just checked in with the Midwest Writing Group and one of the things I mentioned is that I want to read more. It’s the thing that’s suffered the most as I’ve gone back to working full-time. Every time I hear what someone is reading right now, it inspires me! Thanks for checking in. The canned food is odd, isn’t it?

I get so deflated when I hear the constant message that no one reads any more. That’s why scenes (like the one at the Blue Moon) jump out at me. Hurray! People reading.

The mother was saying things about the canned goods like, “Honey, if you look on the back of this corn, it has a recipe for your favorite–corn chowder!” With this mom, canned goods at the Blue Moon made sense.

I read Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant on this latest trip to Vietnam and back. Really loved it. Now I have to go back and read Run, which I tried to read when it first came out. It was a Christmas gift from two years ago, I think.

When Ann Patchett signed books after her reading at the Fitzgerald, she drew a rabbit coming out of a hat in QM’s (maybe Liz’s) “The Magician’s Assistant.” She said during the book tour for that book, she made that picture in **everyone’s** book. The people in the audience seem most taken with her book Bel Canto. I haven’t read it, but I seem to remember that you have.

I did read Bel Canto and loved it, but I also loved The Magician’s Assistant. And I enjoyed her first novel, Patron Saint of Liars. She is such a talented novelist. I think The Magician’s Assistant is a good book to read if you want to look at characters and narrative thrust. For some reason when I read it, I felt like I was studying it, or maybe that it was telling me something that I needed to learn.

I remember Ann Patchett drawing that rabbit in the front of my book like it was yesterday. It’s true, she did say that she had drawn a lot of rabbits. And that she hadn’t done it in a while and it was fun to revisit. Patchett was so accessible as an author. I would love to see her again.

ybonesy, I agree about The Magician’s Assistant. It’s a great book to read for narrative thrust and character detail. I couldn’t put it down. I learned a lot about memoir from her book about her and Lucy, too. Her books make great mentors.

For those who are fans of Tim O’Brien, particularly his book, The Things They Carried, he was interviewed on NPR this afternoon. Wise and humble man. I recommend listening to the interview, rather than reading it. Some powerful calls into Tim from readers and veterans.

What struck me about what he said about writing was how we never know how what we write is going to affect people over time. Or play out in the context of future history. There have been many wars since Vietnam. And though he wrote the book about his time in the Vietnam War, he believes it’s a story about the burdens we carry, and the symbols we carry inside that represent emotions from what we have loved and lost. A great listen.

Thanks for the link. I plan to listen soon. Recently, I tore a page out of The New Yorker that had book jackets of about 12 “Modern Classics.” The Things They Carried is one of them. I haven’t read it. Thanks for the heads-up.

I just started reading Julie and Julia, after just finishing Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I like to read stretched out on my couch or in bed before going to sleep. Lately I have found that reading myself to sleep helps me sleep better. Of course, that all probably depends on the book! I am kind of a slow reader because I want to really absorb what I’m reading, just like I’ll rewind the DVR to replay a scene I really like. I tend to choose books about independent women trying to live life on their terms, and if the story and writing is funny and witty on top of that, sold!

Sounds like great reading traits, loisgrl. I also love books about women and by women. Interesting, the Sisterhood book has gotten a good deal of interest among not only adults but also the teens that I drive in carpool. I thought that was positive, as it’s a much better role model book than some.

I recently finished a classic, Thornton Wilder’s Bridge of San Luis Rey, which we talked about in comments on the post Discovering the Big Read [LINK]. It was good but also harder to decipher than more modern books, in my opinion. But one that gets you thinking for days afterward. I’m also finishing Eat, Pray, Love, which I started and didn’t finish when it first came out. Then I went to see Elizabeth Gilbert (see this post [LINK]) and got and read her latest memoir, Committed.

I’m really not sure what’s in store next. I bought a couple of books and checked out a couple of books from the library; I’m sure they’re already due back. I wish I had a burning desire to read a certain book. I burned through both an essay and short story collection before the latest books. I feel suddenly empty of reading ideas. I’m just not sure what I want at this moment.

ybonesy, I picked up Thornton Wilder’s Bridge of San Luis Rey at the local library last weekend. I like how thin it is. I purposely decided to check out the individual book rather than a big thick composition. I like reading thin books. 8) Haven’t started reading it yet. I think I may take it along on the writing retreat next week. I’m looking forward to it. Especially after reading what you and Teri have said.

I feel a little apathetic to reading right now which has struck me as really strange. I love books and have tons of them around me all the time. The last book I read was Mary Karr’s Lit which I really liked. I want to read things that really sing for me. Want to read books that I have a hard time putting down. But lately, I haven’t made as much time to read. I’m wondering what that’s about.

I’m plugging away at Lonesome Dove. It is really a good read. I’ve never been drawn to Westerns, but this is worth all 1,000 pages. I’m on page 342. My treat at the end will be to watch the miniseries–available at my library.

ybonesy, I’m so envious you got to see Elizabeth Gilbert when she was speaking at UNM about Committed. I had planned to go to that but got nailed with a bug the night before and was out of commission for four days. I loved Eat Pray Love. It was funny as well as being a well written memoir about a profound personal journey, and I always associate it with the summer I read it, when I was also taking a Yoga class at CNM and met one of my best friends and was watching Season One of Veronica Mars on DVD, which was eerily cathartic as I was still getting over the death a few months before of my very best friend, which was the central theme in VM Season One. It all goes together somehow. :) How did you like Committed?

I participated in one Big Read, A Lesson Before Dying, and partially participated in another, Bless Me Ultima, but didn’t go to any discussions for that one, because the one I attended for A Lesson was all high school kids and teachers, so I felt a little out of place!

ybonesy, Teri, is Bridge of San Luis Rey a thick book like Lonesome Dove? :)

Bridge of San Luis Rey is very, very thin. It takes a different sort of concentration to read it, though, as the style it’s written in is not as familiar to our modern ears.
It’s worth the time, though.

Too bad you were sick when Gilbert was in town. She was so accessible, something you don’t always see in writers who make it very big. I liked Committed. I like the topic of Marriage, find it’s something near and dear to my heart, and something that has often come up in my own writing and life. That and motherhood. And I felt Eat, Pray, Love to be hard to drop into when I first tried to read it, maybe it didn’t seem deep enough to me or something, who knows?, after seeing Gilbert I was so delighted with her as a writer that I read Committed fully and then went back to Eat. Pray, Love. And I like it more now.

I wish I would have gone to Bless Me Ultima Big Read session. I loved the book. Wonder who it attracted. Well, maybe more this fall.

I read a scathing review of Committed, and I wonder what your take on this is.

They said Gilbert had sworn off marriage after her first failed one, and then, because of a passport (maybe visa) issue with her foreign-born husband, they got married. So then, she had to build a book around something she didn’t believe in, and act like she did. As I recall, the review was in The New Yorker or some other big magazine like that.

Sinclair, yes, The New Yorker had a nasty review, and I think that’s the adjective I would use to describe it. Very snippy. It described Giilbert’s writing as dramatic, as in a drama queen sort of way. I read the review before I got and read the book. I went to the event with my friend Carolyn, and she and I both wondered on the drive home if perhaps there wasn’t some Envy in that review. We were both so moved by Gilbert, and gosh, Eat, Pray, Love‘s success was off the charts. I did think of that review at times while reading the book. I’ve thought of it at times while re-visiting Eat, Pray, Love. Gilbert does write her emotions. She is emotional. Sometimes she’s over-the-top emotional. She’s a not a quiet memoirist like Hampl. But I don’t think Gilbert is alone in her style. (For example, Mary Karr is pretty emotional.) Gilbert is effective, and after seeing her in person, I really did like her. That was the accessibility part.

I hope you do read it, Sinclair. I thought of you while I was reading Eat, Pray, Love yesterday while waiting with Jim for a doctor’s appointment. In all honesty, there are sections that I read through so fast that perhaps I’m not actually reading but rather skipping. I don’t know; maybe it’s her particular style. I admire her, I think she’s a great storyteller, liked the topic of Committed, but I have found that my mind wanders at times while I’m reading her books. Still recommend you read the book, but just be aware.

Teri, welcome home! I missed you. I love that image of reading in a tree house. It reminds me of Winnie the Pooh. I recently started reading Winnie the Pooh again because I came across an old, old copy that someone was giving away. It mentioned how Pooh got his name. When I run across it again, I’ll come back and comment. I love tree houses. I passed one on my rounds the other day, a huge one in an old oak. It seems like the best place to hole up — close to home, yet up high and removed. Where is the tree house you plan to visit? Do you know of any around here?

Your home is like a tree house. Especially that nook off the living room where you kind of have to scrunch down next to the window. I’ve always liked apartments that are up off the ground level. I like the feeling of looking up over everything. As far as books, I’m listening to writers interviews on CD with Terry Gross. Just plugged it in to the car today. Started with Stephen King. More to come!

Teri, I’ll be curious to know what you think of Plague of Doves on CD. I loved Master Butchers Singing Club read to me. When I listened to Plague of Doves, I got lost sometimes. I think the story is more complex. Or maybe it was the actors reading the books that were different. Can’t wait to hear what you think. I love the ending to Plague of Doves. What a great twist. You’ll like it.

I’m reading Mark Twain’s autobiography, which is fragmentary in style that suits the way I read. There’s something dreamy about reading a passage about a villa in Florence and then wondering later if you’ve been there. The meditative state of reading appeals to me most–you almost seem to jump to a parallel track. I wish I could find more time to read when I’m working, but I’m always barreling ahead, bearing down on completing some cosmically silly but more plainly productive task. In the ideal life, I’d read a third of every day. In my real life, I’m lucky to get in ten minutes before sleep. Another sign of the cattywampus world, I’m afraid.

Hey, D. Long time no see. Your ideal life sounds ideal to me, too. I’m a reader of fragments, too, btw–due to the fact that I don’t make enough long chunks of time, unless, of course, I’m just blown away by a book, in which case I do make the time. But normally, with most books, I read in fits and spurts. Yet I find that I can’t flow with fragmentary styles, generally speaking, even though I read in these little bytes. I wonder if I’d like the Twain autobiography. I suppose I should give it a spin regardless.

There is an article in the New York Times about a new book about John Wilkes Booth. I love the backstory–it is a result of a promise made to Sinclair Lewis 60 years ago. The lineage and influence of writers.

What a cool story, Teri. Loved reading it. Thanks for posting the link. I’m reposting the info and a blurb here (in case they later change the link info, we’ll still be able to find the piece). Remember when we were touring the F. Scott Fitzgerald haunts in St. Paul last summer and ran across the old yellow house where Sinclair Lewis lived? I wonder if they ever sold it. Would be cool to live in the former home of a writer or artist we admired.

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — The last time Barnaby Conrad saw Sinclair Lewis, three years after he served as Lewis’s personal secretary, they were at a bar in Paris and, by Mr. Conrad’s account, Lewis was thoroughly drunk. But not so drunk that he couldn’t chastise his former secretary for failing to execute a book idea that Lewis had handed him one morning at breakfast: a novel based on the conceit that John Wilkes Booth had escaped capture after assassinating Lincoln and had embarked on a secret life in the American frontier.

Devoried Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder—in one day. Reading the new Autobiography of Mark Twain – Volume 1. Just read an online interview with Sapphire on Rain Taxi (Racism, Sexism, and Women Writers: A Conversation with Sapphire (LINK) in which she mentions that she studied with Natalie Goldberg. It’s a great interview that makes you think about racism and sexism in new ways.

I saw the movie version of Ann’s first novel: “The Patron Saint of Liars.” It was on the DVD shelf at the library. It was dreadful, absolutely awful…the worst made-for-TV movie you can imagine. I wonder how Ann could stand it.

Sinclair, I’ve never seen The Patron Saint of Liars. Now I want to. Can it really be that bad? It makes you wonder if Ann had any say in how the book was interpreted in the movie. You hear so many horror stories about that. The examples I like best are when the writers are right there in the mix, right on the set. I think it was Alice Walker who wrote a whole book about the making of a film of one of her books. It might have even been The Color Purple. It was fascinating to read.